Ultra-stable frequency stabilized lasers are the prerequisites for numerous challenging applications such as optical atomic clocks or atom interferometers, ultra-high resolution spectroscopy, or the measurements of fundamental constants. To guarantee optimal short-time frequency stability from milliseconds to hours, the wavelength of these lasers is most often compared to the optical length of a stable optical resonator. Merkel et al. have investigated the frequency stability of an optical fiber ring resonator of 120 m length, kept at 3.5 K and built with commercial optical components. In their investigation, they show quantitatively how the perturbing effects of temperature and pressure dependent effects are suppressed by orders of magnitude at this cryogenic temperature. This is e.g. accomplished by operating the resonator at a turning point of the temperature-dependent length variation. The measured influence on vibrations is also low enough to deal with the inevitable vibrations associated with the operation at the required cryogenic temperatures. The investigation of Merkel et al. represents a successful proof of concept for a novel alternative that, in the future, could challenge the best resonator stabilized lasers used at the forefront of basic research.

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