Absolute frequency measurement of wavelength standard at 1542nm: acetylene stabilized DFB laser

The frequency of a wavelength standard at 1542 nm (194 THz) developed in CMI for the telecommunication band C was measured with a fiber femtosecond frequency comb. The measurement was done for three transitions of acety(13)C(2)H(2): P(14), P(15) and P(16). The results agree well with values in the recommendation for Practical realization of the definition of the metre [1] and even better with recent measurements made in NMIJ/AIST [2,3] - the differences are lower than 2 kHz (or 1x10-(-11) rel.) for all three transitions. This agreement is significant considering the fact that the CMI laser uses an extremely simple spectroscopic arrangement and substantially lower saturation power.