Temporal Characterisation of Optical Frequency Combs

Temporal Characterisation of Optical Frequency Combs
Author: Chaitanya Suhas Joshi
Publisher:
Total Pages: 53
Release: 2013
Genre:
ISBN:

The emerging field of silicon photonics allows us to develop more efficient networks that go beyond the capabilities and limitations of current electronic networks. Integrated photonic solutions in the present and in the future will allow us to keep pace with Moore's Law. Expertise in Silicon fabrication is at a very advanced level due to its use in semiconductor electronics. This expertise can be applied directly to fabricating optical devices using silicon as a medium of propagation for light. Silicon shows a high non linear optical response with high intensities. The high intensities required to see non linearity can be achieved by using waveguides etched into the silicon which confine light to a small mode area thus increasing intensity. One application for silicon waveguide devices is the development of frequency combs. A frequency comb can act as an accurate frequency standard over a very large bandwidth that can range from the visible all the way through to the Mid IR. Applications for frequency combs can be found in high precision spectroscopy, optical metrology, highly precise optical atomic clocks and so on. By the very nature of its frequency spectrum, we expect to see short pulses in the temporal domain from a frequency comb. This thesis examines the building of an autocorrelation setup that can measure these pulses to high accuracy. We explore the choice of detection scheme, the choice of setup and go on to discuss some results from the setup that was built as part of the work leading up to this date.

Femtosecond Optical Frequency Comb: Principle, Operation and Applications

Femtosecond Optical Frequency Comb: Principle, Operation and Applications
Author: Jun Ye
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 373
Release: 2006-06-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0387237917

Over the last few years, there has been a convergence between the fields of ultrafast science, nonlinear optics, optical frequency metrology, and precision laser spectroscopy. These fields have been developing largely independently since the birth of the laser, reaching remarkable levels of performance. On the ultrafast frontier, pulses of only a few cycles long have been produced, while in optical spectroscopy, the precision and resolution have reached one part in Although these two achievements appear to be completely disconnected, advances in nonlinear optics provided the essential link between them. The resulting convergence has enabled unprecedented advances in the control of the electric field of the pulses produced by femtosecond mode-locked lasers. The corresponding spectrum consists of a comb of sharp spectral lines with well-defined frequencies. These new techniques and capabilities are generally known as “femtosecond comb technology. ” They have had dramatic impact on the diverse fields of precision measurement and extreme nonlinear optical physics. The historical background for these developments is provided in the Foreword by two of the pioneers of laser spectroscopy, John Hall and Theodor Hänsch. Indeed the developments described in this book were foreshadowed by Hänsch’s early work in the 1970s when he used picosecond pulses to demonstrate the connection between the time and frequency domains in laser spectroscopy. This work complemented the advances in precision laser stabilization developed by Hall.

Optical Arbitrary Waveform Generation and Measurement

Optical Arbitrary Waveform Generation and Measurement
Author: Nicolas Keith Fontaine
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2010
Genre:
ISBN: 9781124025285

A technology for accurate generation and characterization of arbitrary optical waveforms scaling to terahertz bandwidth can fundamentally transform modern applications including optical spectroscopy, communications, imaging, and many others. Generation of terahertz bandwidth optical waveforms is challenging because direct electrical-to-optical modulation schemes have bandwidths below 100 GHz due to limitations in current electronic technologies. Similarly, continuous, real-time amplitude and phase characterization of optical waveforms is currently limited to tens of gigahertz. Novel methods which take advantage of frequency multiplexing or temporal multiplexing techniques are necessary to extend the generation and measurement bandwidths. This dissertation focuses on bandwidth-scalable optical arbitrary waveform generation based on a frequency-multiplexed technique using optical frequency combs. Three components are necessary for waveform generation: an optical frequency comb which provides a set of evenly and precisely spaced optical frequencies spanning several terahertz, an optical multiplexer and demultiplexer pair to isolate and combine individual spectral lines, and an array of modulators. Frequency-parallel modulation on each comb line broadens the spectrum of each line to fill the spectral gaps between the lines. Defining the signals applied to each modulator enables synthesis of a continuous and fully specified optical spectrum spanning the entire frequency comb's bandwidth. Full control over the spectrum allows complete specification of the temporal domain waveform via the Fourier transform. Optical arbitrary waveform measurement is a symmetric technique where the signal spectrum is demultiplexed into spectral slices and then each spectral slice is coherently detected with respect to a reference comb line. This dissertation introduces a theory for, and shows demonstrations of, the generation and measurement of optical arbitrary waveforms that are scalable to terahertz bandwidths. Results include high-fidelity generation and measurement of arbitrary shaped optical frequency combs with 10, 20, and 40 GHz comb line spacing using integrated waveform shapers. Single-shot waveform measurements show near quantum-limited characterization across a 200-ps wide optical window with 500 GHz bandwidth. Additionally, an integrated real-time implementation of optical arbitrary waveform measurement demonstrates continuous characterization of 160 GHz bandwidth optical waveforms with a 2 s duration. Terahertz-bandwidth, continuous arbitrary optical waveform generation and measurement provide a unique functionality, which will fundamentally impact many fields of science.

Stabilization, Gate Control and Ultrafast Dynamics of Microresonator Optical Frequency Combs

Stabilization, Gate Control and Ultrafast Dynamics of Microresonator Optical Frequency Combs
Author: Abhinav Kumar Vinod
Publisher:
Total Pages: 155
Release: 2021
Genre:
ISBN:

An optical frequency comb (OFC) is a light source whose spectrum comprises of several sharp, equally spaced lines. They were originally developed more than two decades ago to simplify the measurement of optical frequencies in terms of precise atomic standards. OFC technology has progressed remarkably since the first demonstration and OFCs are now the cornerstones of modern-day frequency metrology, precision spectroscopy, astronomical observations, ultrafast optics and quantum information. While the current bulk mode-locked laser frequency comb has had great success in extending the scientific frontier, its use in real-world applications beyond the laboratory setting remains an unsolved challenge due to the relatively large size, weight and power consumption. Recently microresonator-based frequency combs have emerged as a candidate solution with chip-scale implementation and scalability. Microresonator platforms for comb generation are the subject of significant research efforts, which are primarily focused into three areas - comb stabilization, control over comb state generated and evolution paths and study of the comb formation dynamics. In this dissertation we focus on each of these three different areas. First, a novel internal phase-stabilized frequency microcomb that does not require nonlinear second-third harmonic generation nor optical external frequency references is demonstrated. It is shown that the optical frequency can be stabilized by control of two internally accessible parameters: an intrinsic comb offset and the comb spacing. Second, direct electrical control of microresonator parameters is achieved by coupling the gate-tunable optical conductivity of graphene to a silicon nitride photonic microresonator, and modulating its second- and higher-order chromatic dispersions by altering the Fermi level. This is then used to produce charge-tunable primary comb lines from 2.3 terahertz to 7.2 terahertz, coherent Kerr frequency combs, controllable Cherenkov radiation and controllable soliton states, all in a single microcavity. In addition, voltage-tunable transitions between soliton crystal states with defects with defects is demonstrated and mapped via ultrafast second-harmonic optical autocorrelation. Finally, novel ultrafast spectral and temporal measurement techniques are characterized and used to directly capture snapshots of the microresonator field at resolutions of less than 1 ps. These methods are applied to study spectral energy transfer, complex breathing dynamics, collective motion in soliton ensembles and the occurrence of extreme events from a chaotic background.

Novel Optical Frequency Combs Injection Locking Architectures

Novel Optical Frequency Combs Injection Locking Architectures
Author: Ricardo Bustos-Ramirez
Publisher:
Total Pages: 129
Release: 2021
Genre:
ISBN:

This dissertation reviews the work made in the field of chip-scale optical frequency combs using optically injection locked semiconductor mode-locked lasers. First it shows the efforts in the design, characterization and calibration of several semiconductor mode-locked laser architectures on an InP-based platform. Then two separate efforts to obtain a self-referenced optical frequency comb are described. The first one based on an InP-based MLL-PIC that is enhanced via COEO multi-tone injection locking, and then amplified and broadened to an octave using pulse picking and a combination of bulk and integrated nonlinear optics.

Numerical Modelling of Optical Frequency Comb Generation in Microresonators

Numerical Modelling of Optical Frequency Comb Generation in Microresonators
Author: Hamish Randle
Publisher:
Total Pages: 93
Release: 2012
Genre: Microresonators (Optoelectronics)
ISBN:

Optical frequency combs are an exciting area of research with applications in Spectroscopy, optical sensing and telecommunications and in addition they have revolutionized the optical clock. Octave spanning frequency combs have been recently demonstrated using Microresonators. Made from a transparent material, these devices have spherical or toroidal shape and are typically between tens and hundreds of micrometers in size. The light is coupled in through a prism or fibre taper using evanescent wave coupling and circulates the cavity in highly confined whispering gallery modes. Due to the small modal cross section and long photon lifetimes there is a low threshold for nonlinear interaction. Researchers envisage these devices being used for low power microchip scale frequency comb sources in photonic devices. There has been much work on the experimental side of Microresonators, but little in the way of modelling, in particular the interesting nonlinear optical properties of these devices. This thesis describes a new method for modelling microresonator frequency combs, which reduces computational time compared to existing approaches. Two numerical simulation methods, the Newton-Raphson and split step Fourier, are chosen for their suitability to the study of steady state and dynamic regimes respectively. Simulations were performed using code written in MATLAB. We were able to simulate frequency combs with spans exceeding one octave of the spectral domain and containing over 1000 spectral modes, more than twice the number of modes than in any previously published study. The comb spectra were found to be in good agreement with experimental combs published by other researchers. Finally, some inroads were made to a numerical study of comb versatility.

Optical Frequency Comb Generation in Optical Fibres

Optical Frequency Comb Generation in Optical Fibres
Author: Marina Zajnulina
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2015
Genre:
ISBN:

Optical frequency combs (OFC) constitute an array of phase-correlated equidistant spectral lines with nearly equal intensities over a broad spectral range. The adaptations of combs generated in mode-locked lasers proved to be highly efficient for the calibration of high-resolution (resolving power > 50000) astronomical spectrographs. The observation of different galaxy structures or the studies of the Milky Way are done using instruments in the low- and medium resolution range. To such instruments belong, for instance, the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) being developed for the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the 4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST) being in development for the ESO VISTA 4.1 m Telescope. The existing adaptations of OFC from mode-locked lasers are not resolvable by these instruments. Within this work, a fibre-based approach for generation of OFC specifically in the low- and medium resolution range is studied numerically. This approach consists of three optical fibres that are fed by two equally intense continuous-wave (CW) lasers. The first fibre is a conventional single-mode fibre, the second one is a suitably pumped amplifying Erbium-doped fibre with anomalous dispersion, and the third one is a low-dispersion highly nonlinear optical fibre. The evolution of a frequency comb in this system is governed by the following processes: as the two initial CW-laser waves with different frequencies propagate through the first fibre, they generate an initial comb via a cascade of four-wave mixing processes. The frequency components of the comb are phase-correlated with the original laser lines and have a frequency spacing that is equal to the initial laser frequency separation (LFS), i.e. the difference in the laser frequencies. In the time domain, a train of pre-compressed pulses with widths of a few pico-seconds arises out of the initial bichromatic deeply-modulated cosine-wave. These pulses undergo strong compression in the subsequent amplifying Erbium-doped fibre: sub-100 fs pulses with broad OFC spectra are formed. In the following low-dispersion highly nonlinear fibre, the OFC experience a further broadening and the intensity of the comb lines are fairly equalised. This approach was mathematically modelled by means of a Generalised Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation (GNLS) that contains terms describing the nonlinear optical Kerr effect, the delayed Raman response, the pulse self-steepening, and the linear optical losses as well as the wavelength-dependent Erbium gain profile for the second fibre. The initial condition equation being a deeply-modulated cosine-wave mimics the radiation of the two initial CW lasers. The numerical studies are performed with the help of Matlab scripts that were specifically developed for the integration of the GNLS and the initial condition according to the proposed approach for the OFC generation. The scripts are based on the Fourth-Order Runge-Kutta in the Interaction Picture Method (RK4IP) in combination with the local error method. This work includes the studies and results on the length optimisation of the first and the second fibre depending on different values of the group-velocity dispersion of the first fibre. Such length optimisation studies are necessary because the OFC have the biggest possible broadband and exhibit a low level of noise exactly at the optimum lengths. Further, the optical pulse build-up in the first and the second fibre was studied by means of the numerical technique called Soliton Radiation Beat Analysis (SRBA). It was shown that a common soliton crystal state is formed in the first fibre for low laser input powers. The soliton crystal continuously dissolves into separated optical solitons as the input power increases. The pulse formation in the second fibre is critically dependent on the features of the pulses formed in the first fibre. I showed that, for low input powers, an adiabatic soliton compression delivering low-noise OFC occurs in the second fibre. At high input powers, the pulses in the first fibre have more complicated structures which leads to the pulse break-up in the second fibre with a subsequent degradation of the OFC noise performance. The pulse intensity noise studies that were performed within the framework of this thesis allow making statements about the noise performance of an OFC. They showed that the intensity noise of the whole system decreases with the increasing value of LFS.