Octave-spanning lasers for optical metrology applications

This thesis describes the first octave-spanning frequency comb based on a prismless, Ti:sapphire laser. It covers in detail the design and construction of the laser system, as well as the electronic stabilization scheme used to control the frequencies of the mode comb. The system developed is suitable for optical metrology applications in general, although the version here presented is locked to the hydrogen 1S-2S transition frequency in ultracold hydrogen. A detailed study of the carrier-envelope phase dynamics and noise characteristics of octave-spanning Ti:sapphire lasers is presented. We model the effect of the laser dynamics on the residual carrier-envelope phase noise by deriving a transfer function representation of the octave-spanning frequency comb. The modelled phase noise and the experimental results show excellent agreement. The model developed greatly enhances our capability of predicting the residual carrier-envelope phase noise in octave-spanning lasers, an important aspect in many time and frequency domain applications. Potential applications of the current system to ultraprecise optical frequency metrology of ultracold hydrogen are described.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Matos, Lia Machado de

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Daniel Kleppner and Thomas Greytak.

• Physics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/34389
• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Identifier URI

http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/34389

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34389