Soliton frequency comb at microwave rates in a high-Q silica microresonator

Frequency combs are having a broad impact on science and technology because they provide a way to coherently link radio/microwave-rate electrical signals with optical-rate signals derived from lasers and atomic transitions. Integrating these systems on a photonic chip would revolutionize instrumentation, time keeping, spectroscopy, navigation, and potentially create new mass-market applications. A key element of such a system-on-a-chip will be a mode-locked comb that can be self-referenced. The recent demonstration of soliton mode locking in crystalline and silicon nitride microresonators has provided a way to both mode lock and generate femtosecond time-scale pulses. Here, soliton mode locking is demonstrated…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: PHY-1125565, 1125565
• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  Awards: JPL.1459106, KJV.JPLNASA-1-JPL.1459106
• GA
  Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

  Award: PHY-1125565
• ÉP
  École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
• LM
  Lomonosov Moscow State University
• DA
  Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

  Awards: W911NF-14-1-0284, W911NF-14-1-, W31P4Q, W31P4Q-14-1-0001
• AR
  Advanced Research Projects Agency
• IF
  Institute for Quantum Information and Matter, California Institute of Technology

  Award: PHY-1125565