Liquid combs: broadband light with equidistance and without stability

TL;DR

This paper introduces liquid combs, a new type of broadband light source with equidistant spectral lines that lack temporal stability, achieved through engineered laser gain and dispersion, expanding the possibilities for structured white-light sources.

Contribution

The study demonstrates experimentally and theoretically that liquid combs can be produced across multiple laser platforms, offering wider bandwidths and novel structured light sources without the stability constraints of traditional frequency combs.

Findings

Liquid combs maintain spectral equidistance despite rapid phase fluctuations.

Experimental validation across multiple laser platforms and spectral ranges.

Theoretical mean-field model explains the generality of the phenomenon.

Abstract

Broadband light sources with well-defined spectral structures are vital for science and technology. However, the evenly spaced lines of frequency combs represent only a small subset of all possible structured white-light sources. We demonstrate liquid combs: optical states that preserve spectral equidistance but lack temporal stability. By engineering the gain and dispersion of semiconductor laser cavities, we produce light that possesses rapid phase fluctuations but maintains relative phase differences between modes that vary identically. We show experimentally that this phenomenon occurs in multiple laser platforms -- across multiple octaves -- through the creation of a metrological technique that determines the phase differences. We also show theoretically that this is a general phenomenon that can be described using a mean-field theory. These liquid combs are attractive for many applications due to having wider bandwidths than frequency combs, and more generally, they represent the long-sought realization of structured white-light sources that are not combs.