26th Australian Institute of Physics Congress and the Australian and New Zealand Conference on Optics and Photonics

Long-lifetime Repetition-rate-locked Soliton Crystal Microcomb

Not scheduled

20m

Belinda Hutchinson Building (The University of Sydney )

Contributed Oral ANZOS | Photonics and Optics (ANZCOP)

Speaker

Dr Toby Mitchell

Description

Integrated optical frequency combs have potential to be highly deployable due to their size and robustness. However, this potential can only be fully realised if these qualities can be paired with reliability and remote operation. In this work we present a ‘palm’ state soliton crystal microcomb pumped by a 1569.1 nm laser amplified to 1.2 W. The repetition frequency of the soliton crystal was directly locked to an RF source using a simple locking loop that provides feedback to the pump laser power. A standard deviation of 232 mHz on the locked frequency was observed over a period of 9 days, allowing the ‘palm’ state to continue operating long after similar unlocked comb would fail. The soliton crystal comb generation process has been automated and can be remotely operated and locked. Soliton crystals are ideal candidates for a fully self-referenced octave spanning frequency combs due to the repeatable positioning of their comb lines and long lifetimes.