Resonant EO combs: Beyond the standard phase noise model of frequency combs

TL;DR

This paper reveals that resonant electro-optic frequency combs exhibit additional phase noise components beyond the standard model, especially at high frequencies, impacting their noise filtering capabilities and applications.

Contribution

It demonstrates analytically, numerically, and experimentally that the standard phase noise model fails for resonant EO combs, introducing a third noise component at short timescales.

Findings

Standard phase noise model is incomplete for resonant EO combs.

A third phase noise component emerges at high frequencies.

Resonant EO combs may not filter noise as previously expected.

Abstract

A resonant electro-optic (EO) frequency comb is generated through electro-optic modulation of laser light within an optical resonator. Compared to cavity-less EO combs generated in a single pass through a modulator, resonant EO combs can produce broader spectra with lower radio frequency (RF) power and offer a measure of noise filtering beyond the cavity's linewidth. Understanding, measuring, and suppressing the sources of phase noise in resonant EO combs is crucial for their applications in metrology, astrophotonics, optical clock generation, and fiber-optic communication. According to the standard phase noise model of frequency combs, only two variables - the common mode offset and repetition rate phase noise - are needed to fully describe the phase noise of comb lines. However, in this work we demonstrate analytically, numerically, and experimentally that this standard model breaks down for resonant EO combs at short timescales (high frequencies) and under certain comb parameters. Specifically, a third phase noise component emerges. Consequently, resonant EO combs feature qualitatively different phase noise from their cavity-less counterparts and may not exhibit the anticipated noise filtering. A more complete description of the deviations from the standard phase noise model is critical to accurately predict the performance of frequency combs. The description presented here paves the way for improved designs tailored to applications such as super-continuum generation and optical communication.