High spectral purity Kerr frequency comb radio frequency photonic oscillator

Liang, Wei; Eliyahu, Danny; Ilchenko, Vladimir S.; Savchenkov, Anatoliy A.; Matsko, Andrey B.; Seidel, D.; Maleki, Lute

doi:10.1038/ncomms8957

Cited by 510 publications

(294 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…They have been observed in fiber resonator systems [34]. In microresonators, these solitons have been observed in crystalline [25,35,36] and in silicon nitride-based systems [26]. Crystalline system solitons have also been externally broadened to 2/3 of an octave, enabling the detection of the comb offset frequency [37].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Soliton frequency comb at microwave rates in a high-Q silica microresonator

Yang

Suh

et al. 2015

Optica

524

457

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Frequency combs are having a broad impact on science and technology because they provide a way to coherently link radio/microwave-rate electrical signals with optical-rate signals derived from lasers and atomic transitions. Integrating these systems on a photonic chip would revolutionize instrumentation, time keeping, spectroscopy, navigation, and potentially create new mass-market applications. A key element of such a system-on-a-chip will be a mode-locked comb that can be self-referenced. The recent demonstration of soliton mode locking in crystalline and silicon nitride microresonators has provided a way to both mode lock and generate femtosecond time-scale pulses. Here, soliton mode locking is demonstrated in high-Q silica resonators. The resonators produce low-phase-noise soliton pulse trains at readily detectable pulse rates-two essential properties for the operation of frequency combs. A method for the long-term stabilization of the solitons is also demonstrated, and is used to test the theoretical dependence of the comb power, efficiency, and soliton existence power on the pulse width. The influence of the Raman process on the soliton existence power and efficiency is also observed. The resonators are microfabricated on silicon chips and feature reproducible modal properties required for soliton formation. A low-noise and detectable pulse rate soliton frequency comb on a chip is a significant step towards a fully integrated frequency comb system.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Soliton frequency comb at microwave rates in a high-Q silica microresonator

Yang

Suh

et al. 2015

Optica

524

457

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“…Miniature photonic oscillators based on Kerr combs are commercially available today with a phase noise of −115 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz offset and −130 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset from a 10-or 35-GHz output [61]. These performances have recently been improved with a miniature 10-GHz microwave photonic oscillator characterized by a phase noise better than −60 dBc/Hz at 10 Hz, −90 dBc/Hz at 100 Hz, and −170 dBc/Hz at 10 MHz [23]. From the perspective of longterm stability, Kerr combs with 140-GHz intermodal frequency have been stabilized with a residual one-second instability of 10 −15 , with a microwave reference limited absolute instability of 10 −12 [62].…”

Section: Ultra-stable Microwave Generationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, as the research moved toward concrete applications, a great amount of efforts has been devoted to develop chip-scale systems with integrated RRs as in Fig. 3 [20][21][22], or Kerr comb generators based on crystalline WGMRs packaged in a very small volume [23]. In general, this optimization procedure particularly focuses on achieving the highest Q possible, the most efficient laser pump in coupling, as well as the highest signal-to-noise ratio for the lightwave and microwave output signals.…”

Section: Wgm Disk-resonator (Side View)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Kerr optical frequency combs: theory, applications and perspectives

Chembo

2016

Nanophotonics

138

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Abstract:The optical frequency comb technology is one of the most important breakthrough in photonics in recent years. This concept has revolutionized the science of ultra-stable lightwave and microwave signal generation. These combs were originally generated using ultrafast mode-locked lasers, but in the past decade, a simple and elegant alternative was proposed, which consisted in pumping an ultra-high-Q optical resonator with Kerr nonlinearity using a continuous-wave laser. When optimal conditions are met, the intracavity pump photons are redistributed via four-wave mixing to the neighboring cavity modes, thereby creating the so-called Kerr optical frequency comb. Beyond being energy-efficient, conceptually simple, and structurally robust, Kerr comb generators are very compact devices (millimetric down to micrometric size) which can be integrated on a chip. They are, therefore, considered as very promising candidates to replace femtosecond mode-locked lasers for the generation of broadband and coherent optical frequency combs in the spectral domain, or equivalently, narrow optical pulses in the temporal domain. These combs are, moreover, expected to provide breakthroughs in many technological areas, such as integrated photonics, metrology, optical telecommunications, and aerospace engineering. The purpose of this review article is to present a comprehensive survey of the topic of Kerr optical frequency combs. We provide an overview of the main theoretical and experimental results that have been obtained so far. We also highlight the potential of Kerr combs for current or prospective applications, and discuss as well some of the open challenges that are to be met at the fundamental and applied level.

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“…A fully coherent 2/3 octave frequency comb was observed in a SiN microresonator [181,202]. The optical spectra resembling soliton formation were observed as well [203,204].…”

Section: Soliton Kerr Combsmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…The packaged microresonator comb [204] has less than 10 nm 3 dB spectral width, which is broad enough for some applications. The major unsolved problem is related to generation of a coherent frequency comb covering an octave in optical frequency domain and still consuming less than a Watt of power (currently existing broad comb generators consume more than a Watt of optical power which precludes their integration on a chip).…”

Section: Unsolved Problemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On Frequency Combs in Monolithic Resonators

2016

Self Cite

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Optical frequency combs have become indispensable in astronomical measurements, biological fingerprinting, optical metrology, and radio frequency photonic signal generation. Recently demonstrated microring resonator-based Kerr frequency combs point the way towards chip scale optical frequency comb generator retaining major properties of the lab scale devices. This technique is promising for integrated miniature radiofrequency and microwave sources, atomic clocks, optical references and femtosecond pulse generators. Here we present Kerr frequency comb development in a historical perspective emphasizing its similarities and differences with other physical phenomena. We elucidate fundamental principles and describe practical implementations of Kerr comb oscillators, highlighting associated solved and unsolved problems.

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High spectral purity Kerr frequency comb radio frequency photonic oscillator

Cited by 510 publications

References 50 publications

Soliton frequency comb at microwave rates in a high-Q silica microresonator

Soliton frequency comb at microwave rates in a high-Q silica microresonator

Kerr optical frequency combs: theory, applications and perspectives

On Frequency Combs in Monolithic Resonators

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