Optical Frequency Combs and Solitons in High Q Microresonators
Abstract
Optically pumped high-optical-Q microresonators can produce optical frequency combs and periodic optical pulses that in turn are able to produce low-noise microwave signals after a photodetector. These devices have the potential to be compact and consume low power, which combined with their low noise have applications that include astrophysics, radar, time and frequency transfer, telecommunications, quantum networking and control, mobile platforms for precision timing and navigation, optical arbitrary waveform generation, and the generation of highly pure microwave signals. The proposed basic research will combine the experimental expertise of Professor Gary Carter and the theoretical modeling and analysis of Professor Curtis Menyuk to advance the fundamental knowledge of how to produce and purify microwave signals using these compact devices. Our main approach will be to use a RF-modulated optical input (pump) injected into the microresonators. The RF modulated pump will generate optical frequency combs in the form of single solitons and soliton crystals deterministically and conversely the use of these solitons in a high-Q resonator will be used to produce microwave frequencies in a photodetector that will have a lower phase noise than the input RF modulation and hence the purify the input RF modulation. The combined experimental and theoretical research will concentrate on limitations in the methods and equipment for producing low noise microwave signals from a pulse train composed of single pulses with a repetition rate that equals the inverse of the time for one round trip of an optical pulse (a single soliton) in the resonator as well as from a periodic train of pulses (soliton crystal) with a repetition rate that is an integer multiple of this fundamental rate. Results of this research on the purified microwave phase noise produced in this way will also be modeled to include technical noise produced from a variety of effects. A novel extension of this research effort will be to replace the RF source for the modulator by the output of the microresonator after photodetection. This is a feedback technique that has been successfully used in Optical Electronic Oscillators (OEO) where in this case the high Q of the microresonator replaces the long fiber delay line in the OEO. This would provide a self-starting oscillator with very low phase noise. We also propose to use a pulsed optical input derived from a modelocked fiber laser at the single soliton repetition rate to produce solitons with a pump with a higher peak power and with equal or lower average power compared to the continuous wave case. The investigators will recruit scholarship students from under-represented populations to participate in this research who are participants in UMBCÕs well-known Meyerhoff Scholars Program, the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation program, the Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement (McNair Scholars) Program, and the Center for Women in Technology (CWIT), all of which are at UMBC. The aim will be to train these scholarship students with the goal of having them produce meaningful research that is publishable in peer reviewed journals and presented at peer reviewed conferences and provide them with a path to an exciting career in STEM. We anticipate that this research will expand UMBCÕs reputation in this field and generate a sustainable research effort that will become nationally recognized.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- May 24, 2023
- Source ID
- W911NF2310166
Entities
People
- Gary Carter
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Office of the Secretary of Defense
- University of Maryland, Baltimore County