New Designs and Fundamental Limits in Microresonator Combs
Abstract
The invention of frequency combs in 2000 revolutionized the measurement of frequency and time. Most frequency combs are based on short-pulse lasers, but it was discovered in 2007 that it is possible to use microresonators to generate a broadband frequency comb. This discovery led to a worldwide outpouring of interest since it led to the possibility of generating compact, chip-size frequency combs. Almost all microresonator-based frequency combs use single bright solitons to generate the combs in simple waveguide designs. These combs have significant drawbacks that more complex waveforms and waveguide designs can potentially address. Current designs do not “self-start,” and a majority of the comb lines do not play a role in locking the comb. Moreover, the out-coupling of the comb energy varies by many orders of magnitude over the bandwidth of the comb, which makes locking the comb difficult. In our proposed work, we will consider novel waveforms and waveguide designs that can potentially address all these issues. Novel waveforms that we will consider include bright and dark cnoidal waves (Turing rolls) in the perfect soliton crystal limit and bright and dark soliton molecules. Novel waveguides that we will consider include pulley waveguides to equalize the out-coupling and notched waveguide configurations that lead to two-color solitons. Noise imposes a fundamental limit on the performance of the frequency combs. We will determine the limit that noise, including non-stationary noise, imposes on these novel waveforms and waveguides. In carrying out this work, we will use computational tools that we have developed or used in the past. These include dynamical systems tools that we developed to determine the stability and noise performance of combs, tools that we have used to model non-stationary noise, and optimization tools based on genetic and gradient-descent algorithms.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 12, 2021
- Source ID
- FA95502010357
Entities
People
- Curtis R. Menyuk
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- United States Air Force
- University of Maryland, Baltimore County