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Scientists at the University of Konstanz and the National Institute of Standards, Germany and Technology (NIST), U.S.A have developed a tool called optical frequency comb, which can measure different frequencies of visible light and displays in a comb like teeth pattern.
The new optical frequency comb has all the colours spanning in its about 50,000 teeth and it can be viewed through a simple optical system consisting of a grating and a microscope.
The new tool with highly separated visible teeth of spectrum can be helpful in the fields of astronomy, communications system and many other optical applications.
Optical frequency combs are used commonly in research laboratories and next-generation atomic clocks. Previously the frequency combs had a closed pattern. So the light never looked like the evenly striped pattern to distinguish colours to the naked eye.
A frequency comb behaves like a ruler by which the scientists can measure the light emitted by different sources like lasers, atoms, stars or other objects with very high accuracy.
The frequency comb is produced by a dime-sized laser source that creates super-fast, super-short pulses of high-power light containing thousands of different frequencies. The laser pulses can be coupled into a nonlinear optical fiber to expand the spectrum of frequencies in the comb. So the individual patterns can be observed easily.
