Laser frequency microcombs provide a series of equidistant,coherent frequency markers across a broad spectrum,enabling advancements in laser spectroscopy,dense optical communications,precision distance metrology,and a...Laser frequency microcombs provide a series of equidistant,coherent frequency markers across a broad spectrum,enabling advancements in laser spectroscopy,dense optical communications,precision distance metrology,and astronomy.Here,we design and fabricate silicon nitride,dispersion-managed microresonators that effectively suppress avoided-mode crossings and achieve close-to-zero averaged dispersion.Both the stochastic noise and mode-locking dynamics of the resonator are numerically and experimentally investigated.First,we experimentally demonstrate thermally stabilized microcomb formation in the microresonator across different mode-locked states,showing negligible center frequency shifts and a broad frequency bandwidth.Next,we characterize the femtosecond timing jitter of the microcombs,supported by precise metrology of the timing phase and relative intensity noise.For the single-soliton state,we report a relative intensity noise of−153.2 dB∕Hz,close to the shot-noise limit,and a quantum-noise–limited timing jitter power spectral density of 0.4 as 2∕Hz at a 100 kHz offset frequency,measured using a self-heterodyne linear interferometer.In addition,we achieve an integrated timing jitter of 1.7 fs±0.07 fs,measured from 10 kHz to 1 MHz.Measuring and understanding these fundamental noise parameters in high clock rate frequency microcombs is critical for advancing soliton physics and enabling new applications in precision metrology.展开更多
基金support from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory(Grant No.B622827)the National Science Foundation(Grant Nos.1824568,1810506,1741707,and 1829071)the Office of Naval Research(Grant No.N00014-16-1-2094).
文摘Laser frequency microcombs provide a series of equidistant,coherent frequency markers across a broad spectrum,enabling advancements in laser spectroscopy,dense optical communications,precision distance metrology,and astronomy.Here,we design and fabricate silicon nitride,dispersion-managed microresonators that effectively suppress avoided-mode crossings and achieve close-to-zero averaged dispersion.Both the stochastic noise and mode-locking dynamics of the resonator are numerically and experimentally investigated.First,we experimentally demonstrate thermally stabilized microcomb formation in the microresonator across different mode-locked states,showing negligible center frequency shifts and a broad frequency bandwidth.Next,we characterize the femtosecond timing jitter of the microcombs,supported by precise metrology of the timing phase and relative intensity noise.For the single-soliton state,we report a relative intensity noise of−153.2 dB∕Hz,close to the shot-noise limit,and a quantum-noise–limited timing jitter power spectral density of 0.4 as 2∕Hz at a 100 kHz offset frequency,measured using a self-heterodyne linear interferometer.In addition,we achieve an integrated timing jitter of 1.7 fs±0.07 fs,measured from 10 kHz to 1 MHz.Measuring and understanding these fundamental noise parameters in high clock rate frequency microcombs is critical for advancing soliton physics and enabling new applications in precision metrology.
