Phase-locked white-light continuum pulses:: toward a universal optical frequency-comb synthesizer

We demonstrate that two white-light continuum pulses that are independently generated by phase-locked ultrashort laser pulses are locked in phase and show surprisingly clear and stable Young interference fringes. The experiment shows that the two generated continua emit essentially in phase and that random phase jitter can remain negligible. This result is not only of interest for studies of nonlinear field-matter interactions but also suggests that such white-light continuum pulses can be used to realize a broad frequency comb for absolute frequency measurements from the IR to the UV. (C) 2000 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 190.0190, 190.2620, 190.5940, 300.6320, 320,7110.