Nathalie Picqué

Max-Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy, Berlin, Germany

Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany

email: nathalie.picque@mbi-berlin.de

Abstract:

Optical frequency combs have revolutionized time and frequency metrology by providing rulers in frequency space that measure large optical frequency differences and/or straightforwardly link microwave and optical frequencies. Such combs enable precision laser spectroscopy, tests of fundamental physics and provide the long-missing clockwork mechanism for optical clocks.

While frequency combs have become key to research areas such as attosecond science or the calibration of astronomical spectrographs, one of the most successful applications beyond their original purpose has been dual-comb interferometry. An interferometer can be formed using two frequency combs with slightly different line spacing. Dual-comb interferometers without moving parts are fundamentally different from any other type of interferometer: they perform direct frequency measurements, with no geometric limitations to resolution. They outperform state-of-the-art devices in a growing number of fields including spectroscopy, distance metrology and three-dimensional imaging, and offer unique features such as frequency measurements, accuracy, precision, speed. They have opened new possibilities for precision measurements and for miniaturized sensors on photonic chips. This talk will provide a short introduction to dual-comb interferometry and will review its latest exciting developments.

Short bio:

Nathalie Picqué is a Director at the Max-Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy (Berlin, Germany) and a Professor of Physics at the Humboldt University of Berlin. She has been previously a research group leader at the Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (Garching, Germany) and a research scientist with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) at Orsay (France). She received her doctoral degree in Physics from Université Paris-Saclay (France) in 1998. Her research interests are in the areas of optics and molecular physics, more particularly in interferometry, precision spectroscopy and laser technology. Her research focuses on exploring new ideas that involve laser frequency combs and on applying these novel concepts to metrology, molecular spectroscopy, holography and chip-scale sensing. Nathalie Picqué has received several awards, including the 2021 Gentner-Kastler Prize in Physics, the 2022 Helmholtz Prize for Applied Metrology and the 2024 William F. Meggers Award of Optica. Detailed cv at https://www.frequency-comb.eu/doc/CV-Nathalie-Picque.pdf