CENAM (Mexico) has successfully installed a frequency comb, which was built and operated by the former BIPM Length Section’s laser laboratory.

The equipment installed by CENAM is the second of two frequency combs that were identified as being worth offering to NMIs for use in their work programmes, following the dismantling of the former BIPM Length Section’s laser laboratory. Information about the frequency combs was circulated among the NMIs after consultation with the Consultative Committee for Length (CCL). The first comb was successfully installed by INTI (Argentina) in 2019. The two frequency combs had originally been built by the BIPM and are used in comparing microwave to optical frequency radiations.

The second comb has been installed in the CENAM frequency comb laboratory and initial tests were carried out at the end of 2021. The tests proved that each of the systems is operating correctly, and an optical supercontinuum was generated. The CENAM length group expects to start using the frequency comb to provide calibration services, mainly to dimensional metrology laboratories, in the second quarter of 2022.

The installation of the former BIPM frequency combs by CENAM and INTI demonstrates the successful transfer of equipment, developed by the former BIPM Length Section, and which is now being used to support length metrology in different NMIs.

The BIPM offers its best wishes to the CENAM length group for the new activity.