An alkali-referenced vector spectrum analyzer for visible-light integrated photonics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a high-resolution vector spectrum analyzer for visible-light integrated photonics, enabling precise characterization of optical devices with broad spectral coverage and atomic referencing.

Contribution

It presents a novel visible-light VSA with wide bandwidth, high frequency resolution, and atomic referencing, filling a critical gap in photonics characterization techniques.

Findings

Spectral bandwidth from 766 to 795 nm achieved.

Frequency resolution of 415 kHz demonstrated.

Atomic referencing with 8.1 MHz accuracy enabled.

Abstract

Integrated photonics has reformed our information society by offering on-chip optical signal synthesis, processing and detection with reduced size, weight and power consumption. As such, it has been successfully established in the near-infrared (NIR) telecommunication bands. With the soaring demand in miniaturized systems for biosensing, quantum information and transportable atomic clocks, extensive endeavors have been stacked on translating integrated photonics into the visible spectrum, i.e. visible-light integrated photonics. Various innovative visible-light integrated devices have been demonstrated, such as lasers, frequency combs, and atom traps, highlighting the capacity and prospect to create chip-based optical atomic clocks that can make timing and frequency metrology ubiquitous. A pillar to the development of visible-light integrated photonics is characterization techniques featuring high frequency resolution and wide spectral coverage, which however remain elusive. Here, we demonstrate a vector spectrum analyzer (VSA) for visible-light integrated photonics, offering spectral bandwidth from 766 to 795 nm and frequency resolution of 415 kHz. The VSA is rooted on a widely chirping, high-power, narrow-linewidth, mode-hop-free laser around 780 nm, which is frequency-doubled from the near-infrared via an efficient, broadband CPLN waveguide. The VSA is further referenced to hyperfine structures of rubidium and potassium atoms, enabling 8.1 MHz frequency accuracy. We apply our VSA to showcase the characterization of loss, dispersion and phase response of passive integrated devices, as well as densely spaced spectra of mode-locked lasers. Combining operation in the NIR and visible spectra, our VSA allows characterization bandwidth exceeding an octave and can be an invaluable diagnostic tool for spectroscopy, nonlinear optical processing, imaging and quantum interfaces to atomic devices.