Versatile tuning of Kerr soliton microcombs in crystalline microresonators

Microresonator-based optical frequency combs emitted from high-quality-factor microresonators, also known as microcombs, have opened up new horizons to areas of optical frequency comb technology including frequency metrology, precision sensing, and optical communication. To extend the capability of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Communications physics 2023-01, Vol.6 (1), p.1-8, Article 1
Main Authors: Fujii, Shun, Wada, Koshiro, Sugano, Ryo, Kumazaki, Hajime, Kogure, Soma, Kato, Yuichiro K., Tanabe, Takasumi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/624/400/1118
639/624/400/385
Bandwidths
Efficiency
Flexibility
Fluorides
Frequency stabilization
Magnesium fluorides
Optical communication
Optical frequency
Optics
Photonics
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Power
Repetition
Resonators
Solitary waves
Temperature effects
Thermal expansion
Tuning
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Summary:Microresonator-based optical frequency combs emitted from high-quality-factor microresonators, also known as microcombs, have opened up new horizons to areas of optical frequency comb technology including frequency metrology, precision sensing, and optical communication. To extend the capability of microcombs for such applications, large and reliable tunability is of critical importance. Here, we show broad spectral tuning of Kerr soliton microcombs in a thermally controlled crystalline microresonator with pump-detuning stabilization. The fundamental elements composing frequency combs, namely the center frequency, repetition frequency, and carrier-envelope offset frequency, are spectrally tuned by up to −48.8 GHz, −5.85 MHz, and −386 MHz, respectively, leveraging thermal effects in ultrahigh-Q crystalline magnesium fluoride resonators. We further demonstrate a 3.4-fold enhancement of soliton comb power resulting from thermal expansion with a temperature change of only 28 K by employing quantitative analyses of the fiber-to-resonator coupling efficiency. High-repetition rate microresonator-based frequency combs offer powerful and compact optical frequency comb sources that are of great importance to various applications. Here, the authors extend the tunability of the Kerr soliton frequency combs by exploiting thermal effects and frequency stabilization techniques.
ISSN:2399-3650
2399-3650
DOI:10.1038/s42005-022-01118-4