A precision frequency reference for next-generation nonlinear dynamics and DoD capabilities
Abstract
A precision stable frequency reference for next-generation nonlinear dynamics and DoD capabilities Program manager: Dr. Michael Shlesinger, ONR Investigator: Dr. Chee Wei Wong, University of California at Los Angeles Abstract: The requested instrument is an octave-spanning Menlo optical frequency synthesizer, a precise frequency standard with the highest stability to date. The optical frequency synthesizer (Menlo FC1500) is based on a mode-locked fiber laser comb with frequency spacing imprecision of 1 part in 1017 and an absolute frequency instability of 1 part in 1015 or better. With the f-to-2f interferometry lock, the bulk frequency standard has a group-to-phase velocity drift offset locked down to zero. When locked to our stable optical laser at UCLA, the microwave signal output is ultrastable in both short (hours) and long (days) timescales for enhanced DoD and research capabilities. The requested frequency standard is critical to our next-frontier nonlinear dynamics research and research-related education, enabling core capabilities in three major focus areas: (1) understanding vacuum-noise-seeded evolution, statistical carrier-envelope phase offset, and synthesizing the highest nonlinearity sub-cycle pulses in the chip-scale nonlinear oscillators, coupled over 3,600+ nonlinear modes simultaneously (Section 2.1); (2) chip-scale chaos generation and optical turbulence at record-high (100 Gb/s or more) data rates in coupled nonlinear oscillators (Section 2.2); and (3) characterizing high-performance optical lattice RF filters for channelizers in DoD facilities (Section 2.3). This will serve as the first and only precision optical frequency standard in a university for the Los Angeles, San Diego and Santa Barbara greater metropolitan areas. The requested instrument budget is $225,000 and will be matched with $115,395.11 from start-up funds of the investigator. The instrument is phase-locked to the complementary ultrastable laser (1-Hz linewidth and sub-100-kHz drift over 1-day; $130,000) at UCLA, to achieve the DoD frequency standard. The precision and stable metrology enables between twoorders to six-orders of magnitude improvement of frequency (and timing) characterization over the best fiber-laser optical interferometers, enabling the understanding of the noise-seeding, precision dispersive nature, and chaos generation of high-dimensional nonlinear oscillators. ??
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- May 22, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141512829
Entities
People
- Chee Wei Wong
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of California, Los Angeles