An agile laser with ultra-low frequency noise and high sweep linearity

Jiang, Haifeng; Kéfélian, F.; Lemonde, P.; Clairon, A.; Santarelli, Giorgio

doi:10.1364/oe.18.003284

Cited by 66 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…In the setup the incoming light is divided with the splitter 50/50 to two mentioned arms of the interferometer. One can find extensive explanation of theory of the frequency noise properties measurement in [6].…”

Section: Ilmentioning

confidence: 99%

Narrow-linewidth tunable laser working at 633 nm suitable for industrial interferometry

et al. 2015

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Semiconductor lasers found a foothold in many fields of human activities, mainly thanks to its small size, low cost and high energy efficiency. Recent methods for accurate distance measurement in industrial practice use principles of laser interferometry, which are based on lasers operating in the visible spectrum. When the laser beam is visible the alignment of the industrial interferometer makes the measuring process easier. Traditional lasers for these purposes for many decades -HeNe gas laser -have superb coherence properties but small tunable range. On the other hand laser diodes are very useful lasers but only if the active layer of the semiconductor equips with a passive selective element that will increase the quality of their own resonator and also prevents the structure of its higher longitudinal modes.The main aim of the work is a design of the laser source based on a new commercial available laser diode with Distributed Bragg Reflector structure, butterfly package and fibre coupled output. The ultra-low noise injection current source, stable temperature controller and supply electronic equipment were developed with us and experimentally tested with this laser for the best performances required of the industrial interferometry field. The work also performs a setup for frequency noise properties investigation with an unbalanced fibre based Mach-Zehnder interferometer and 10 m long fibre spool inserted in the reference arm. The work presents the way to developing the narrow-linewidth operation the DBR laser with the wide tunable range up to more than 1 nm of the operation wavelength at the same time. Both capabilities predetermine this complex setup for the industrial interferometry application as they are the long distance surveying or absolute scale interferometry.

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Section: Ilmentioning

confidence: 99%

Narrow-linewidth tunable laser working at 633 nm suitable for industrial interferometry

et al. 2015

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“…The control and the corrected error signals are applied to the FET-current input of the laser. The systematic chirp nonlinearities are suppressed as much as possible by an open-loop pre-distortion technique [22,25]. The nominal frequency is swept over 20 GHz within 250 µs, with a local slope varying from 25 GHz/ms to 400 GHz/ms.…”

Section: B Hardware Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

20 GHz instantaneous bandwidth RF spectrum analyzer with high time-resolution

Berger

Schwarz

Molin

et al. 2014

Microwave Photonics (MWP) and the 2014 9th Asia-Pacific Microwave Photonics Conference (APMP) 2014 International Topical Meetin

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We report on the experimental demonstration of a multi-gigahertz bandwidth RF spectrum analyzer exhibiting a resolution below 20 MHz, based on spectral hole burning in a rare-earth ion-doped crystal. To be compatible with demanding real-time spectrum monitoring applications, our demonstrator is designed to reach a high time resolution. For this purpose, we implemented the so-called "rainbow" architecture in which the spectral components of the incoming signal are angularly separated by the crystal, and are then acquired with a pixelated photodetector. The Tm 3+ :YAG crystal is programmed with a semiconductor DFB laser which frequency scan is servocontrolled and synchronized with the angular scan of a resonant galvanometric mirror, while a high-speed camera is used to acquire the spectra. In the perspective of future implementation within a system, the crystal is cooled below 4 K with a closedcycle cryostat. With this setup, we have been able to monitor and record the spectrum of complex microwave signals over an instantaneous bandwidth above 20 GHz, with a time resolution below 100 µs, 400 resolvable frequency components and a probability of intercept of 100 %.

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Experimental evidence of a fundamental noise floor at the tens of millihertz level in laser locking onto unbalanced fibre-based Michelson interferometer

Audo

Coulon

Kéfélian

2017

2017 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe &Amp; European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)

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Large arm length imbalance fibre-based interferometers have shown great potential for laser frequency stabilization and control, with frequency noise power spectral density close to the 10 -1 Hz/Hz 1/2 level [1]. In order to understand the performance of such frequency stabilization systems, it is important to distinguish the intrinsic noise of the frequency reference, which is ultimately limited by fibre thermal noise, and the locking noise, which is limited by the detection noise but can also be affected by residual amplitude modulation fluctuations in phase modulator or other less well known causes. It is often difficult to measure the out-of-loop locking noise when one laser is locked to a frequency reference. However, the fibre length noise practically cancels when two lasers are locked onto the same interferometer with a small frequency difference, which allows to measure the out-of-loop locking noise to a very low level [2]. Fig. 1 (a) shows our experimental setup. Two low frequency noise diode lasers at 1,5 m from RIO, with frequency difference in the microwave range, are independently locked on the same Michelson interferometer with a 300 m fibre spool in one arm, using the Pound-Drever-Hall (PDH) technique. The two PDH RF signals are detected by the same photodiode followed by a shot noise limited home-made transimpedance amplifier. The photodetector signal is split, filtered and down-mixed to generate two error signals which are amplified by a servo circuit with 4 integrators in order to reach very low residual laser noise at 1 kHz despite a bandwidth below 100 kHz. Frequency corrections are applied through the diode current and the electro-optic voltage. The beat-note frequency noise spectrum was measured by using a home-made frequency-to-voltage convertor. Fig. 1 (b) shows the spectrum of the frequency noise between the free running (dark) and the locked lasers (blue), the frequency noise converted from the error signals (red) and the measurement floor (grey). We clearly observe on the spectrum of the frequency noise between the two locked lasers, i.e. the out-of-loop locking noise, a white floor of 210 -1 Hz/Hz 1/2, largely above the in-loop error noise floor. Multiple tests performed on the setup have shown that this noise floor is independent of the frequency difference between the two lasers, independent of the detection power level, on the way correction was applied and also on different interferometer configurations and was not due to any cross-talk or multimode effects. However using two fibre lasers with a frequency noise lower than the RIO laser, the noise floor have decreased to 910 -2 Hz/Hz 1/2 (corresponding to a Lorentzian linewidth of 25 mHz). Moreover, adding a single tone frequency modulation at a frequency between 10 kHz and 100 kHz on one of the laser was shown to strongly increase the noise floor level as a function of the modulation amplitude. We conclude that this noise floor is due to a down conversion of the residual laser frequency noise, located here mainly between 10 kH...

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An agile laser with ultra-low frequency noise and high sweep linearity

Cited by 66 publications

References 35 publications

Narrow-linewidth tunable laser working at 633 nm suitable for industrial interferometry

Narrow-linewidth tunable laser working at 633 nm suitable for industrial interferometry

20 GHz instantaneous bandwidth RF spectrum analyzer with high time-resolution

Experimental evidence of a fundamental noise floor at the tens of millihertz level in laser locking onto unbalanced fibre-based Michelson interferometer

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