Abstract

Frequency-stable lasers have many applications, including interferometric measurements and sensors, coherent optical communication, and high-resolution spectroscopy. The ¹³C₂H₂ P(16) (ν₁+ ν₃) absorption line at 1542.3837 nm is the preferred frequency reference in the telecommunication band due to a relatively large linestrength. Applications of highly stable lasers outside the research laboratories are often hampered by the complexity of the setup. With a recently developed simple and compact acetylene stabilized fibre laser [1] we obtained a shot-term relative frequency instability of 5.0×10⁻¹³(τ /s)^−½ for averaging times τ up to 100 s (see Fig. 1), and a relative repeatability over 11 weeks of 4.3×10⁻¹³. This laser uses a 21 cm long bulk gas cell, and replacing this cell with a gas-filled hollow-core photonic bandgap fibre may reduce the complexity and the size of the laser setup even further.

© 2011 IEEE