Exciting perspectives in the ultraviolet - click by click

By measuring the frequencies of light waves, researchers can identify far more "colours" than the human eye can perceive. This capability allows for precise distinction between atoms and molecules based on their unique spectral fingerprints. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics have now successfully recorded spectra with thousands of "colours" in the challenging ultraviolet spectral range. The key to this achievement is a novel spectrometer concept that combines two frequency combs with a photon counter.