Diamond Micro-Combs and Applications

Abstract

Our program will develop chip-scale, diamond-based, microresonator frequency combs that operate in visible wavelength range (<400-750nm), in mode-locked regime (pulsewidth <100fs), have high-repetition rates (10-100GHz), low threshold powers (<100mW) and large comb-tooth powers (~100W, average). Currently, microresonator based combs operating in visible are not available, despite the great need. Owing to its unique material properties, diamond is well-suited to overcome this challenge, and enable realization of stable, low-noise, visible microresonator frequency combs. Of particular interest are diamond’s large linear (n ~ 2.4) and nonlinear (n2 = 1.3x10-19 m2/W) refractive index, wide bandgap (5.5eV), large thermal conductivity (>2000W/mK), low thermal expansion coefficient, and small thermo-optic coefficient (dn/dT = 7.6x10-6 K-1). By leveraging these properties of diamond, our program will bridge a key spectral gap (i.e. UV-visible) that exists in microresonator-based frequency combs, and enable realization of light-weight, chip-scale systems for efficient and fast Raman spectroscopy. In particular, we will demonstrate dual-comb CARS and/or SRS detection of Bacillus Anthracis - a rod-shaped bacterium that causes anthrax disease -, as well as anthrax biomarker Calcium dipicolinate (CaDPA). Owing to its wide transparency window, diamond also allows for integration of visible, near-IR (750nm–2.5m) and mid-IR (6-15m) combs on the same chip thus enabling wide range of spectroscopy techniques (absorption, Raman, etc) to be combined in one monolithic platform. To accomplish these ambitious goals, we have assembled an international multi-disciplinary team, with expertise in comb modeling and design, diamond growth, diamond nanofabrication and nanophotonics, and dual-comb spectroscopy. We believe that our work will open up new avenues of research in areas as diverse as spectroscopy, sensing, nonlinear optics and quantum science and technology. Additional applications of our portable and robust combs will be in calibration of astronomical spectrographs and optical coherence tomography (OCT).

Document Details

• Document Type: DoD Grant Award
• Publication Date: Apr 20, 2016
• Source ID: W31P4Q1510013

Entities

People

• Marko Loncar

Organizations

• Army Contracting Command
• Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
• Harvard University

Tags

Fields of Study

• Physics

Readers

• Optical Physics and Photonics.

Technology Areas

• Quantum Computing