Demonstration of a stable erbium-fiber-laser-based frequency comb based on a single rubidium atomic resonator

Abstract

We propose a compact stabilization system for erbium(Er)-fiber-laser-based frequency comb with wavelengths ranging from 1510 nm to 1610 nm, which is widely used in fiber-based optical communication. In this stabilization scheme, both the repetition rate and mode of the comb is directly stabilized to a Rb atomic resonator, based on the physical phenomenon of coherent population trapping (CPT) and saturated absorption resonance, respectively. The stabilized frequency comb provides the long-term instabilities of ∼3 × 10−12 for repetition rate and of ∼7 × 10−12 for each optical mode of comb and can meet the requirement of optical-comb-based communication.