High-speed tunable microwave-rate soliton microcomb
Abstract
Soliton microcombs are a promising new approach for photonic-based microwave signal synthesis. To date, however, the tuning rate has been limited in microcombs. Here, we demonstrate the first microwave-rate soliton microcomb whose repetition rate can be tuned at a high speed. By integrating an electro-optic modulation element into a lithium niobate comb microresonator, a modulation bandwidth up to 75 MHz and a continuous frequency modulation rate up to 5.0 × 1014 Hz/s are achieved, several orders-of-magnitude faster than existing microcomb technology. The device offers a significant bandwidth of up to tens of gigahertz for locking the repetition rate to an external microwave reference, enabling both direct injection locking and feedback locking to the comb resonator itself without involving external modulation. These features are especially useful for disciplining an optical voltage-controlled oscillator to a long-term reference and the demonstrated fast repetition rate control is expected to have a profound impact on all applications of frequency combs.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jun 12, 2023
- Source ID
- 10.1038/s41467-023-39229-3
Entities
People
- Jingwei Ling
- Kerry Vahala
- Mingxiao Li
- Qiang Lin
- Raymond Lopez-rios
- Shixin Xue
- Usman A. Javid
- Yang He
Organizations
- Defense Threat Reduction Agency
- National Science Foundation
- United States Department of Defense