English

Optical-frequency measurements with a Kerr-microcomb and photonic-chip supercontinuum

Optics 2018-03-07 v1 Instrumentation and Detectors

Abstract

Dissipative solitons formed in Kerr microresonators may enable chip-scale frequency combs for precision optical metrology. Here we explore the creation of an octave-spanning, 15-GHz repetition-rate microcomb suitable for both f-2f self-referencing and optical-frequency comparisons across the near infrared. This is achieved through a simple and reliable approach to deterministically generate, and subsequently frequency stabilize, soliton pulse trains in a silica-disk resonator. Efficient silicon-nitride waveguides provide a supercontinuum spanning 700 to 2100 nm, enabling both offset-frequency stabilization and optical-frequency measurements with >100 nW per mode. We demonstrate the stabilized comb by performing a microcomb-mediated comparison of two ultrastable optical-reference cavities.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1710.02872,
  title  = {Optical-frequency measurements with a Kerr-microcomb and photonic-chip supercontinuum},
  author = {Erin S. Lamb and David R. Carlson and Daniel D. Hickstein and Jordan R. Stone and Scott A. Diddams and Scott B. Papp},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1710.02872},
  year   = {2018}
}