Direct On-Chip Digital Optical Synthesis (DODOS)
Abstract
The development of techniques for precise frequency control of RF and microwave radiation in the 1940's revolutionized modern warfare. Frequency control is the enabling technology for RADAR, satellite and terrestrial communications, and positioning and navigation technology, among many other core DoD capabilities. By comparison, frequency control at optical frequencies is relatively immature, comparable to the state-of-the-art of microwave control in the 1930's. The first practical demonstration of optical frequency synthesis, utilizing a self-referenced optical comb, was performed in 1999 and, since that time, the precision and accuracy of optical measurements has improved by four orders of magnitude, including the demonstration of atomic clocks utilizing optical-frequency atomic transitions that far outperform existing technology based on microwave transitions. To date, however, optical frequency control has been constrained to laboratory experiments due to the large size, relative fragility, and high cost of optical comb-based synthesizers. Recent developments in self-referenced optical frequency combs in microscale resonators enable the development of a fully-integrated chip-scale optical frequency synthesizer. Ubiquitous low-cost robust optical frequency synthesis is expected to create a similar disruptive capability in optical technology as microwave frequency synthesis did in the 1940's, enabling high-bandwidth coherent optical communications, coherent synthesized-aperture LiDAR, portable high-accuracy atomic clocks, high-resolution standoff gas/toxin detection, and intrusion detection, among other foreseen applications. The Direct On-chip Digital Optical Synthesis (DODOS) program will integrate a diverse range of photonic and electronic components to create a microscale, high-accuracy optical frequency synthesizer, in a compact, robust package, suitable for deployment in a wide variety of mission-critical DoD applications. Significant challenges in the program include the integration of heterogeneous devices and materials that are incompatible with conventional high-volume manufacturing of integrated circuits, optimizing efficient on-chip pump lasers and high-bandwidth detectors, and developing high-precision microwave control electronics with low power consumption. Basic research for this program is funded within PE 0601101E, Project ES-01.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2016
- Source ID
- e3bcadf25987bf464fd1baa01e3040a1
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- Root: ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY