Poled Lithium Niobate Ridge Waveguide Research Articles

Spectral noise in frequency conversion from the visible to the telecommunication C-band.

We report a detailed study of the noise properties of a visible-to-telecom photon frequency converter based on difference frequency generation (DFG). The device converts 580 nm photons to 1541 nm using a strong pump laser at 930 nm, in a periodically poled lithium niobate ridge waveguide. The converter reaches a maximum device efficiency of 46 % (internal efficiency of 67%) at a pump power of 250 mW. The noise produced by the pump laser is investigated in detail by recording the noise spectra both in the telecom and visible regimes and measuring the power dependence of the noise rates. The noise spectrum in the telecom is very broadband, as expected from previous work on similar DFG converters. However, we also observe several narrow dips in the telecom spectrum, with corresponding peaks appearing in the 580 nm noise spectrum. These features are explained by sum frequency generation of the telecom noise at wavelengths given by the phase-matching condition of different spatial modes in the waveguide. The proposed noise model is in good agreement with all the measured data, including the power dependence of the noise rates, both in the visible and telecom regimes. These results are applicable to the class of DFG converters where the pump laser wavelength is in between the input and target wavelength.

Reduced pulse energy for frequency comb offset stabilization with a dual-pitch periodically poled lithium niobate ridge waveguide

The pulse energy for stabilizing the carrier-envelop offset frequency of an Er-doped fiber laser was reduced by a dual-pitch (DP-) periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) ridge waveguide implemented in a 2f-to-3f self-referencing interferometer (SRI). The pulse energy requirement was less than half that for a single-pitch PPLN ridge waveguide implemented in an f-to-2f SRI. We also found that environmental noise could be reduced by adjusting the pulse energy for frequency stabilization with the DP-PPLN ridge waveguide, as estimated from the phase noise of an out-of-loop interferometer.

Frequency stabilization of an Er-doped fiber laser with a collinear 2f-to-3f self-referencing interferometer

We report the stabilization of the carrier-envelope offset (CEO) frequency of an Er-doped fiber laser with a collinear 2f-to-3f self-referencing interferometer. The interferometer is implemented by a dual-pitch periodically poled lithium niobate ridge waveguide with two different quasi-phase matching pitch sizes. We obtain a 52-dB signal-to-noise ratio in the 100-kHz resolution bandwidth of a heterodyne beat signal, which is sufficient for frequency stabilization. We also demonstrate that the collinear geometry is robust against environmental perturbation by comparing in-loop and out-of-loop Allan deviations when the in-loop CEO frequency is stabilized with a phase-locked loop circuit.