Besides applications in metrology (most notably, optical clocks), highly stable optical frequency combs are playing a role in ultraprecise spectroscopy for astronomy and in other emerging areas. Frequency combs became a hot research topic in 1999 and even more so after the Nobel Prize was awarded to John L. Hall and Theodor W. Hansch in 2005 for their work in this area. Since then, frequency combs have found their way into various areas of research and technology--most notably for optical clock applications. It has been known for decades that the optical spectrum of the output of a modelocked laser, generating a train of picosecond or femtosecond light pulses, consists of discrete lines. Such a line structure is called a frequency comb. For comparison, continuous-wave lasers also often generate a spectrum consisting of discrete lines; however, only in modelocked lasers are the frequencies of these lines tightly synchronized with each other, despite influences of chromatic dispersion and optical nonlinearities.
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机译：除了在计量学（最著名的是光学时钟）中的应用之外，高稳定度的光学频率梳还在天文学和其他新兴领域的超精密光谱学中发挥着作用。频率梳在1999年成为一个热门研究主题，在2005年诺贝尔奖因其在这一领域的工作而被授予约翰·霍尔（John L. Hall）和西奥多·汉斯（Theodor W. Hansch）之后更是如此。自那时以来，频率梳已进入各种研究和技术领域，尤其是在光学时钟应用中。几十年来，众所周知，产生一系列皮秒或飞秒光脉冲的多模激光的输出光谱由离散的线组成。这种线结构称为频率梳。为了进行比较，连续波激光器还经常产生由离散线组成的光谱。但是，尽管受到色散和光学非线性的影响，但只有在锁模激光器中，这些线的频率才彼此紧密同步。
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