frequency combs Optical 11. T. Udem, R. Holzwarth, and T. W. Hänsch, “ Optical frequency metrology,” Nature 416, 233–237 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/416233a are valuable tool for spectroscopy in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectral region, where a large number of molecules have strong absorption features. The evenly spaced modes in the frequency domain enable the frequency comb to act as a ruler and provide unprecedented precision and speed compared with other spectrometric techniques.