Dispersive-wave induced noise limits in miniature soliton microwave sources
Abstract
Compact, low-noise microwave sources are required throughout a wide range of application areas including frequency metrology, wireless-communications and airborne radar systems. And the photonic generation of microwaves using soliton microcombs offers a path towards integrated, low noise microwave signal sources. In these devices, a so called quiet-point of operation has been shown to reduce microwave frequency noise. Such operation decouples pump frequency noise from the soliton’s motion by balancing the Raman self-frequency shift with dispersive-wave recoil. Here, we explore the limit of this noise suppression approach and reveal a fundamental noise mechanism associated with fluctuations of the dispersive wave frequency. At the same time, pump noise reduction by as much as 36 dB is demonstrated. This fundamental noise mechanism is expected to impact microwave noise (and pulse timing jitter) whenever solitons radiate into dispersive waves belonging to different spatial mode families.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Mar 04, 2021
- Source ID
- 10.1038/s41467-021-21658-7
Entities
People
- Boqiang Shen
- Chengying Bao
- Heming Wang
- Kerry Vahala
- Lue Wu
- Qi-Fan Yang
- Qing-Xin Ji
- Zhiquan Yuan
Organizations
- United States Department of Defense