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Operation of an optical atomic clock with a Brillouin laser subsystem

Summary

Microwave atomic clocks have traditionally served as the 'gold standard' for precision measurements of time and frequency. However, over the past decade, optical atomic clocks have surpassed the precision of their microwave counterparts by two orders of magnitude or more. Extant optical clocks occupy volumes of more than one cubic metre, and it is a substantial challenge to enable these clocks to operate in field environments, which requires the ruggedization and miniaturization of the atomic reference and clock laser along with their supporting lasers and electronics. In terms of the clock laser, prior laboratory demonstrations of optical clocks have relied on the exceptional performance gained through stabilization using bulk cavities, which unfortunately necessitates the use of vacuum and also renders the laser susceptible to vibration-induced noise. Here, using a stimulated Brillouin scattering laser subsystem that has a reduced cavity volume and operates without vacuum, we demonstrate a promising component of a portable optical atomic clock architecture. We interrogate a 88Sr+ ion with our stimulated Brillouin scattering laser and achieve a clock exhibiting short-term stability of 3.9 × 10−14 over one second—an improvement of an order of magnitude over state-of-the-art microwave clocks. This performance increase within a potentially portable system presents a compelling avenue for substantially improving existing technology, such as the global positioning system, and also for enabling the exploration of topics such as geodetic measurements of the Earth, searches for dark matter and investigations into possible long-term variations of fundamental physics constants.
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Summary

Microwave atomic clocks have traditionally served as the 'gold standard' for precision measurements of time and frequency. However, over the past decade, optical atomic clocks have surpassed the precision of their microwave counterparts by two orders of magnitude or more. Extant optical clocks occupy volumes of more than one cubic...

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Slab-coupled optical waveguide (SCOW) devices and photonic integrated circuits (PICs)

Summary

We review recent advances in the development of slab-coupled optical waveguide (SCOW) devices, progress toward a flexible photonic integration platform containing both conventional high-confinement and SCOW ultra-low confinement devices, and applications of this technology.
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Summary

We review recent advances in the development of slab-coupled optical waveguide (SCOW) devices, progress toward a flexible photonic integration platform containing both conventional high-confinement and SCOW ultra-low confinement devices, and applications of this technology.

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Super-homogenous saturation of microwave-photonic gain in optoeletronic oscillator systems

Published in:
IEEE Photonics J., Vol. 4, No. 5, October 2012, pp. 1256-1266.
Topic:

Summary

We show that the saturation characteristic of microwave-photonic gain is "superhomogeneous" such that the gain of a weaker tone saturates more rapidly than that of a stronger tone when both signals are transmitted over an intensity-modulated optical link. Using this gain model, we simulate the effect of nonlinear gain saturation on the performance of a slab-coupled optical waveguide (SCOW)-based optoelectronic oscillator (OEO). We verify our simulations with experimental measurements and show that low sidemode levels (< -110 dBc) can be achieved even when multiple modes can oscillate within the passband of the OEO loop filter.
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Summary

We show that the saturation characteristic of microwave-photonic gain is "superhomogeneous" such that the gain of a weaker tone saturates more rapidly than that of a stronger tone when both signals are transmitted over an intensity-modulated optical link. Using this gain model, we simulate the effect of nonlinear gain saturation...

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High dynamic range suppressed-bias microwave photonic links using unamplified semiconductor laser source

Published in:
AVFOP 2012: IEEE Avionics, Fiber-Optics and Photonics Tech. Conf., 11-13 September 2012, pp. 28-9.
Topic:
R&D group:

Summary

Microwave photonic (MWP) links with a low noise figure and high dynamic range are required for antenna remoting, radio-over-fiber (RoF), and other advanced applications. MWP links have recently been demonstrated with noise figures approaching 3 dB, without any electrical preamplification, by using low-noise high-power laser sources in conjunction with efficient optical intensity modulators and high-power photodetectors. An alternate approach to noise figure reduction, suitable for sub-octave links, is based on using a high-power laser source and shifting the bias point of an external optical intensity modulator to reduce the average photocurrent and suppress excess link noise. Here, we report the performance of a novel slab-coupled optical waveguide external-cavity laser (SCOWECL) in a suppressed bias MWP link. We compare the performance of this link with a suppressed-bias link using a source comprising a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) laser and erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) and show that MWP links built using SCOW-based emitter technology offer superior performance due to the small-form factor, high-efficiency, low-noise, and high power laser source.
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Summary

Microwave photonic (MWP) links with a low noise figure and high dynamic range are required for antenna remoting, radio-over-fiber (RoF), and other advanced applications. MWP links have recently been demonstrated with noise figures approaching 3 dB, without any electrical preamplification, by using low-noise high-power laser sources in conjunction with efficient...

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Amplifier-free slab-coupled optical waveguide optoelectronic oscillator systems

Published in:
Opt. Express, Vol. 20, No. 17, 13 August 2012, pp. 19589-19598.
Topic:

Summary

We demonstrate a free-running 3-GHz slab-coupled optical waveguide (SCOW) optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) with low phase-noise (88 dB down from carrier). The SCOW-OEO uses highpower low-noise SCOW components in a single-loop cavity employing 1.5- km delay. The noise properties of our SCOW external-cavity laser (SCOWECL) and SCOW photodiode (SCOWPD) are characterized and shown to be suitable for generation of high spectral purity microwave tones. Through comparisons made with SCOW-OEO topologies employing amplification, we observe the sidemode levels to be degraded by any amplifiers (optical or RF) introduced within the OEO cavity.
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Summary

We demonstrate a free-running 3-GHz slab-coupled optical waveguide (SCOW) optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) with low phase-noise (88 dB down from carrier). The SCOW-OEO uses highpower low-noise SCOW components in a single-loop cavity employing 1.5- km delay. The noise properties of our SCOW external-cavity laser (SCOWECL) and SCOW photodiode (SCOWPD) are characterized...

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High-power, low-noise 1.5-um slab-coupled optical waveguide (SCOW) emitters: physics, devices, and applications

Summary

We review the development of a new class of high-power, edge-emitting, semiconductor optical gain medium based on the slab-coupled optical waveguide (SCOW) concept. We restrict the scope to InP-based devices incorporating either InGaAsP or InGaAlAs quantum-well active regions and operating in the 1.5-μm-wavelength region. Key properties of the SCOW gain medium include large transverse optical mode dimensions (>;5 × 5 μm), ultralow optical confinement factor (Γ ~ 0.25-1%), and small internal loss coefficient (α i ~ 0.5 cm-1). These properties have enabled the realization of 1) packaged Watt-class semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) having low-noise figure (4-5 dB), 2) monolithic passively mode-locked lasers generating 0.25-W average output power, 3) external-cavity fiber-ring actively mode-locked lasers exhibiting residual timing jitter of
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Summary

We review the development of a new class of high-power, edge-emitting, semiconductor optical gain medium based on the slab-coupled optical waveguide (SCOW) concept. We restrict the scope to InP-based devices incorporating either InGaAsP or InGaAlAs quantum-well active regions and operating in the 1.5-μm-wavelength region. Key properties of the SCOW gain...

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Compact external-cavity semiconductor mode-locked laser with quantum-well-intermixed modulator and saturable absorber

Summary

We demonstrate a slab-coupled optical waveguide external-cavity mode-locked laser having unique bandedges for the amplifier, modulator and saturable absorber elements. An average output power of 50mW and timing jitter of 254fs is achieved at 1.5-GHz.
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Summary

We demonstrate a slab-coupled optical waveguide external-cavity mode-locked laser having unique bandedges for the amplifier, modulator and saturable absorber elements. An average output power of 50mW and timing jitter of 254fs is achieved at 1.5-GHz.

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Packaged, high-power, narrow-linewidth slab-coupled optical waveguide external cavity laser (SCOWECL)

Published in:
IEEE Photonics Technol. Lett., Vol. 23, No. 14, 15 July 2011.
Topic:

Summary

We report the demonstration of an InGaAlAs/InP quantum-well, high-power, low-noise packaged semiconductor external cavity laser (ECL) operating at 1550 nm. The laser comprises a double-pass, curved-channel slab-coupled optical waveguide amplifier (SCOWA) coupled to a narrow-bandwidth (2.5 GHz) fiber Bragg grating passive cavity using a lensedfiber. At a bias current of 4 A, the ECL produces 370 mW of fiber-coupled output power with a Voigt lineshape having Gaussian and Lorentzian linewidths of 35 kHz and 1 kHz, respectively, and relative intensity noise < -160 dB/Hz from 200 kHz to 10 GHz.
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Summary

We report the demonstration of an InGaAlAs/InP quantum-well, high-power, low-noise packaged semiconductor external cavity laser (ECL) operating at 1550 nm. The laser comprises a double-pass, curved-channel slab-coupled optical waveguide amplifier (SCOWA) coupled to a narrow-bandwidth (2.5 GHz) fiber Bragg grating passive cavity using a lensedfiber. At a bias current of...

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Microwave photonic applications of slab-coupled optical waveguide devices

Published in:
2010 23rd Annual Mtg. of the IEEE Photonics Society, 10 November 2010, pp. 479-480.
Topic:

Summary

The semiconductor slab-coupled optical waveguide (SCOW) concept is a versatile device platform that has enabled new classes of high-power, low-noise single-frequency lasers, mode-locked lasers, optical amplifiers, and photodiodes for analog optical links and photonic analog-to-digital converters.
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Summary

The semiconductor slab-coupled optical waveguide (SCOW) concept is a versatile device platform that has enabled new classes of high-power, low-noise single-frequency lasers, mode-locked lasers, optical amplifiers, and photodiodes for analog optical links and photonic analog-to-digital converters.

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