Narrow-linewidth optical frequency comb reference to a fiber delay line

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a fully stabilized narrow-linewidth optical frequency comb locked to a kilometer-long fiber delay line, achieving high stability and low noise, with potential applications in precision metrology and spectroscopy.

Contribution

First demonstration of a fully stabilized narrow-linewidth OFC referenced to a fiber delay line with compact, integrated system design.

Findings

Residual phase noise of 925 mrad at 1542 nm

Fractional frequency stability of 9.13×10^(-13) at 12.8 ms

Linewidth compressed by a factor of ~170

Abstract

In this letter, we derive a fully-stabilized narrow-linewidth optical frequency comb (OFC) reference to a kilometer-long fiber delay line for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. The 1537-nm comb modes and 1566-nm comb modes in the OFC are phase-locked to the fiber delay line with 40-kHz locking bandwidth. From out-of-loop measurement, the 1542-nm comb mode has residual phase noise of 925 mrad (integrated from 10 MHz to 1 kHz), fractional frequency stability of 9.13*10(-13) at 12.8 ms average time and 580 Hz linewidth. The linewidth has been compressed by a factor of ~ 170 compared to the free-running condition. Short-term stability of presented OFC exceeds most commercial microwave oscillators. The entire phase-locking system is compact and highly-integrated benefiting from absence of optical amplifiers, f-2f interferometers and optical/radio references. The presented OFC shows significant potential of being reliable laser source in low-noise-OFC-based precise metrology, microwave generation and dual-comb spectroscopic applications outside the laboratory.