Frequency noise performances of a Ti:sapphire optical frequency comb stabilized to an optical reference

• DOI: 10.1016/j.optcom.2012.11.045
• Publication Date: 2012-12-05T21:45:20Z
• Authors: D.V. Sutyrin; N. Poli; N. Beverini; S.V. Chepurov; M. Prevedelli; M. Schioppo; F. Sorrentino; M.G. Tarallo; G.M. Tino
• Keywords: Optical Frequency Comb (OFC); Optical Clock; PULSED LASER; METROLOGY; 0103 physical sciences; 01 natural sciences

Abstract We report on a detailed analysis of frequency noise and intensity dynamics of a free-running femtosecond Ti:sapphire optical frequency comb (OFC) pumped by a multi-mode 532 nm laser. We have used these results for phase locking the OFC to a Hz-wide, cavity stabilized, 698 nm semiconductor laser. An analysis of the in-loop error signals and an estimation of Allan deviation indicates a lower limit for the frequency stability of the OFC at the level of ∼ 5.3 × 10 − 14 for 125 ms integration time comparable with the clock laser frequency stability over the entire OFC spectrum. The noise transfer processes between the pump laser and the Ti:sapphire laser have been studied in detail, comparing the resulting frequency noise of the OFC output spectrum with both a single-mode and a multi-mode pump lasers. In the latter case, we employed a pump beam steering control to maintain an OFC regime with a minimum impact of pump laser amplitude noise on the carrier-envelope offset frequency.