Electro-optical frequency division and stable microwave synthesis

Abstract

A more simple route to metrology standards The time standards set by atomic clocks are usually the domain of national metrology laboratories. Li et al. modulated the phase of two closely spaced laser lines to generate a comb of stable and equally spaced frequencies. They then used that comb to generate stable microwaves. Being somewhat simpler than existing optical comb generation techniques and also tunable, the approach may offer a new era of metrology and precision timekeeping. Science , this issue p. 309