Stabilization of femtosecond laser frequency combs with subhertz residual linewidths

Abstract

We demonstrate that femtosecond laser frequency combs (FLFCs) can have a subhertz linewidth across their entire emission spectra when they are phase locked to a reference laser with a similarly narrow line width. Correspondingly, the coherence time of the comb components relative to the reference laser can be of the order of a few seconds. Thus we are able to detect high-contrast spectral interferograms at up to 10-8 integration time between two FLFCs locked to a common optical reference.