Optical frequency standards and measurement

This paper celebrates the progress in optical frequency standards and measurement, won by the 40 years of dedicated work of world-wide teams working in frequency standards and frequency measurement. Amazingly, after this time interval, the field is now simply exploding with new measurements and major advances of convenience and precision, with the best fractional frequency stability and potential frequency accuracy now being offered by optical systems. The new "magic" technology underlying the RF/optical connection is the capability of using femtosecond (fs) laser pulses to produce optical pulses so short their Fourier spectrum covers an octave bandwidth in the visible. These "white light" pulses are repeated at stable rates (∼100 MHz to 1 GHz, set by design), leading to an optical "comb" of frequencies with excellent phase coherence and stability and containing some millions of stable coherent optical frequencies. Optical-heterodyned differences between comb lines provides a frequency-related RF or microwave output with remarkably low added phase noise, such that in an optically-based atomic clock, the phase noise of the standards-grade microwave frequency reference dominates over that of optical reference and the fs "gear-box".