GHz Optical Frequency Comb Research Articles

Generation of a Wideband OFC by the Correlation of Multiple Modes of a Gain-Switched Fabry Pérot Laser

We experimentally demonstrate two novel photonically integrable architectures of a wideband gain-switched optical frequency comb (OFC). The proposed method is based on correlating multiple modes of gain-switched Fabry-Pérot (GS-FP) laser. This is achieved by injection locking a GS-FP with an optimised signal generated by an source OFC and a dual-stage active demultiplexer. By employing such a configuration, we demonstrate the generation of two 6.25 GHz OFCs, spanning over 337.5 GHz and 875 GHz with expansion factors of 4 and 10, respectively. The optimisation of the OFC expansion for flatness and/or wide span, as required is also shown. Furthermore, a detailed comb line characterisation is reported, to highlight the spectral purity of the expanded comb portraying low linewidth (∼85 kHz), a low relative intensity noise (RIN better than -130 dB/Hz), and a high degree of phase correlation between lines (13 Hz beat tone width). Finally, active demultiplexing of the comb lines with various separations across the expanded OFC is reported, demonstrating its suitability for use in a superchannel-based flexible optical networks, mmW/THz generation and spectroscopy applications.

Low-noise microwave generation based on optical-microwave synchronization

Low-noise microwave signals are of vital importance in fields such as cold atomic optical clocks, photon radars, and remote synchronization at large facilities. Here, we report a compact all-optical-fiber method to generate a low noise microwave signal, in which the fiber loop optical-microwave phase detector is used to coherently transfer the frequency stability of the ultra-stable laser to the microwave. Combining a narrow linewidth optical frequency comb and a fiber loop optical-microwave phase discriminator, a tight phase-lock between 7 GHz dielectric oscillator and optical frequency comb is achieved, the remaining phase noise of the synchronized optical pulse sequence and the microwave signal is –100 dBc/Hz@1 Hz, and the timing jitter is 8.6 fs (1 Hz—1.5 MHz); by building two sets of low-noise microwave generation systems, the measured residual phase noise of the 7 GHz microwave is –90 dBc/Hz@1 Hz, and the corresponding frequency stability is 4.8 × 10<sup>–15</sup>@1 s. These results provide a novel idea for generating the low-noise microwaves based on optical coherent frequency division.

Direct chip-scale optical frequency divider via regenerative harmonic injection locking

A novel optical frequency division technique, called regenerative harmonic injection locking, is used to transfer the timing stability of an optical frequency comb with a repetition rate in the millimeter wave range (∼300GHz) to a chip-scale mode-locked laser with a ∼10GHz repetition rate. By doing so, the 300 GHz optical frequency comb is optically divided by a factor of 30× to 10 GHz. The stability of the mode-locked laser after regenerative harmonic injection locking is ∼10-12 at 1 s with a 1/τ trend. To facilitate optical frequency division, a coupled opto-electronic oscillator is implemented to assist the injection locking process. This technique is exceptionally power efficient, as it uses less than 100µW of optical power to achieve stable locking.

Dispersion pre-compensation of 25.6 Tbps waveforms using an optical frequency comb synthesizer/analyzer

In this study, we propose and demonstrate a dispersion compensation system for an ultrafast 25.6 Tbps waveform using multilevel 8-ary amplitude and 32-ary phase modulation. The waveform bit period was 312.5 fs, which was controlled and compensated by a 200 GHz optical frequency comb (OFC) synthesizer with a 6.4 THz bandwidth. Dispersion spectra were measured in parallel and simultaneously (within 1 ms), based on single-shot dual-heterodyne mixing by introducing an OFC and arrayed waveguide grating to separate sidebands. An optical pulse synthesizer (OPS) can individually control the phase and amplitude spectra of the OFC. To control transmitted waveforms in a dispersed media, the OPS can be oppositely biased to feed the measured dispersion back into the source waveform when it generates an arbitrary waveform. In this study, a 25.6 Tbps dispersion-free waveform was successfully transmitted through a 10.55 km fiber.

Demonstration of a highly stable 10 GHz optical frequency comb with low timing jitter from a SCOWA-based harmonically mode-locked nested cavity laser.

An optical frequency comb with mode spacing of 10GHz operating in the c-band is produced from a harmonically mode-locked laser using a slab-coupled optical waveguide amplifier device with a fiber-coupled external cavity. An intracavity Fabry-Perot etalon serves as a high finesse optical filter for supermode suppression and as the reference for cavity length stabilization using a multi-combline Pound-Drever-Hall setup. The Allan deviation of a single optical combline near 193.4THz is measured via a heterodyne beat with a cavity stabilized cw laser and reaches a minimum fractional frequency deviation of 3×10-13 at τ=30 ms. In addition, the phase noise of the photodetected pulsed output of the laser shows a timing jitter of <23 fs integrated from 1Hz to the Nyquist frequency.

Low-noise and broadband optical frequency comb generation based on an optoelectronic oscillator

A novel scheme to generate broadband high-repetition-rate optical frequency combs and low phase noise microwave signals simultaneously is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. By incorporating an optical frequency comb generator in an optoelectronic oscillator loop, more than 200 lines are generated for a 25 GHz optical frequency comb, and the single-sideband phase noise is as low as -122 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz offset for the 25 GHz microwave signal. 10 and 20 GHz optical frequency combs and microwave signals are also generated. Unlike the microwave frequency synthesizer, the phase noise of the microwave signals generated by this new scheme is frequency independent.

Frequency stability of a 10 GHz optical frequency comb from a semiconductor-based mode-locked laser with an intracavity 10,000 finesse etalon

An optical frequency comb is constructed using a semiconductor gain medium with a fiber-coupled external cavity and stabilized to an intracavity 10,000 finesse etalon, which is temperature stabilized and held in a vacuum chamber at 10(-6) Torr. Optical frequency stability measurements show that the comb has a reduced sensitivity to environmental fluctuations. An upper limit on the optical frequency variation of 100 kHz over >12 min of continuous operation is measured using a real-time spectrum analyzer. This measurement is limited by the linewidth of the reference source, and further measurements with a frequency counter show a fractional deviation of 2×10(-11) at 50 ms. Furthermore, out-of-band ASE rejection is shown to be >36 dB, a tenfold improvement over that of a laser with a 1000 finesse FPE.

Comb-based radio-frequency photonic filtering with 20 ns bandwidth reconfiguration

We present a scheme to generate a 10 GHz optical frequency comb that is bandwidth reconfigurable on a time scale of tens of nanoseconds via electronic control of the drive signal to a phase modulator. When such a comb is used as the source for a radio-frequency (RF) photonic filter employing dispersive propagation, the RF filter bandwidth varies in inverse proportion to the optical bandwidth. As a result we are able to demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, bandwidth-reconfigurable RF filtering with transition times under 20 ns. The reconfiguration speed is determined by the response time of a programmable RF variable attenuator.

Ultrafast optical frequency comb synthesizer and analyzer

We propose an ultrafast optical arbitrary waveform synthesizing/analyzing technique demonstrated with 2 Tbit/s waveforms. An ultrafast waveform was generated by manipulating the amplitude and phase of a 400 GHz optical frequency comb using a newly developed colorless optical synthesizer. The 400 GHz optical frequency comb was generated from a 25 GHz optical frequency comb using a colorless arrayed waveguide grating. This waveform was then analyzed on the frequency axis using a custom heterodyne-detection technique based on the dual-heterodyne mixing method. The phase and amplitude spectra can be observed in parallel using another optical frequency comb as a reference combined with an arrayed waveguide grating. This optical system, named the ultrafast optical frequency comb synthesizer and analyzer, can synthesize and analyze an arbitrary waveform in the THz frequency region.

High-resolution spectroscopy using interleaved 100 GHz optical frequency comb scanned by phase modulator

A high-resolution spectroscopy technique is proposed with an optical phase modulator combined with an interleaved optical frequency comb. The optical phase modulator and a frequency-locked laser light guarantee a spectral resolution less than 1 MHz on an absolute frequency axis. A wide measurement frequency range was realized using a 25 GHz optical frequency comb lying over a 4 THz frequency region. An extraction of single tooth intensity from the comb was realized by a heterodyne technique with a frequency-tunable laser used as a local oscillator. Also, the 25 GHz optical frequency comb was interleaved to generate four 100-GHz combs for removing the crosstalk from the 25 GHz neighboring sidebands in the teeth. This proposed spectroscopy technique was experimentally demonstrated with a resonator of less than 1 MHz linewidth and a H 13C 14N gas cell. Thus, a measurement frequency range higher than 4 THz (1530 nm–1560 nm) was confirmed with an effective spectral resolution 100 kHz order. In addition, the characteristics of the proposed system were compared with those of the previous system with a single-sideband (SSB) optical modulator.

Near quantum-limited, single-shot coherent arbitrary optical waveform measurements

Four-quadrature spectral interferometry using balanced coherent detection enables single-shot full-field characterization of complex-shaped optical waveforms with near quantum-limited sensitivity. A 90 degrees optical hybrid places a waveform in four-quadrature-phases with a stronger, well-characterized reference pulse. Measurement of the four spectra with an integrating two-dimensional detector array followed by balanced detection uniquely determines the signal field. Balanced coherent detection provides common-mode noise rejection and coherent gain enabling near quantum-limited sensitivity. The single-shot waveform was temporally gated from a 100 ps periodic train of arbitrary optical waveforms generated using line-by-line pulse shaping on a 10 GHz optical frequency comb. The measurements show arbitrary waveforms with 200-ps record lengths, 500 GHz optical bandwidths and only 1200 detected photons.

Generation of 20 GHz, sub-40 fs pulses at 960 nm via repetition-rate multiplication

Optical filtering of a stabilized 1 GHz optical frequency comb produces a 20 GHz comb with approximately 40 nm bandwidth (FWHM) at 960 nm. Use of a low-finesse Fabry-Pérot cavity in a double-pass configuration provides a broad cavity coupling bandwidth (Deltalambda/lambda approximately 10%) and large suppression (50 dB) of unwanted modes. Pulse durations shorter than 40 fs with less than 2% residual amplitude modulation are achieved.

Rapid updating of optical arbitrary waveforms via time-domain multiplexing

We demonstrate high-fidelity optical arbitrary waveform generation with 5 GHz waveform switching via time-domain multiplexing. Compact, integrated waveform shapers based on silica arrayed-waveguide grating pairs with 10 GHz channel spacing are used to shape (line-by-line) two different waveforms from the output of a 10-mode x 10 GHz optical frequency comb generator. Characterization of the time multiplexer's complex transfer function (amplitude and phase) by frequency-resolved optical gating permits compensation of its impact on the switched waveforms and matching of the measured and target waveforms to better than G'=5%.

32 phase×32 amplitude optical arbitrary waveform generation

We describe the precise shaping and mode-resolved amplitude and phase characterization of optical arbitrary waveforms by using a 20 GHz optical frequency comb and integrated 64 x 20 GHz channel arrayed waveguide grating pair. Complex waveforms with large variations in phase and amplitude between adjacent modes were generated and characterized.