Compact self-referenced frequency comb for airborne lidar applications

mospheric trace gas measurements. Such measurements typically call for a very stringent long-term stability of the emitted wavelengths down to the 10-10 level, which can hardly be reached with conventional methods making use of broadened absorption lines in gas cells. Furthermore, such conventional

methods can only cover narrow spectral regions in the vicinity of sufficiently strong absorption lines of the trace gas. Self-referenced optical frequency combs, used as spectral references, provide an elegant solution to these two limitati