Optical frequency combs: the path from laboratory innovation to wider adoption, translational challenges and emerging opportunities

Optical frequency combs (OFCs) have fundamentally reshaped precision measurement and enabled significant advances in traditional “hard sciences” including spectroscopy, astronomy, and metrology 1 , 2 , 3 . The significance of frequency combs was cemented with the award of half of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics to Theodor W. Hänsch and John L. Hall for lifelong contributions to laser-based precision spectroscopy and their substantial contributions to the realization of optical frequency combs. Research on OFCs has since boomed. After 26 years of OFCs’ progression, their impact in these knowledge driven specialties is well established, however broader industrial and commercial adoption remains surprisingly limited. OFCs have emerged as a cornerstone technology, yet it appears their wider impact has reached an impasse. Despite their transformative capabilities, one of the main barriers to wider adoption is that OFC technology is not well understood outside of metrology and comb research groups.