Passively mode-locked laser with an ultra-narrow spectral width
Abstract
Most mode-locking techniques introduced in the past focused mainly on increasing the spectral bandwidth to achieve ultrashort, sub-picosecond-long coherent light pulses. By contrast, less importance seemed to be given to mode-locked lasers generating Fourier-Transform-limited nanosecond pulses, which feature the narrow spectral bandwidths required for applications in spectroscopy, the efficient excitation of molecules, sensing and quantum optics. Here, we demonstrate a passively mode-locked laser system that relies on simultaneous nested cavity filtering and cavity-enhanced nonlinear interactions within an integrated microring resonator. This allows us to produce optical pulses in the nanosecond regime (4.3 ns in duration), with an overall spectral bandwidth of 104.9 MHz-more than two orders of magnitude smaller than previous realizations. The very narrow bandwidth of our laser makes it possible to fully characterize its spectral properties in the radiofrequency domain using widely available GHz-bandwidth optoelectronic components. In turn, this characterization reveals the strong coherence of the generated pulse train.
Details
- Externe Organisation(en)
-
Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS)
University of Glasgow
University of Sussex
Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics Chinese Academy of Sciences
City University of Hong Kong
St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (ITMO)
Swinburne University of Technology
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
- Typ
- Artikel
- Journal
- Nature Photonics
- Band
- 11
- Seiten
- 159-162
- Anzahl der Seiten
- 4
- ISSN
- 1749-4885
- Publikationsdatum
- 01.03.2017
- Publikationsstatus
- Veröffentlicht
- Peer-reviewed
- Ja
- ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
- Elektronische, optische und magnetische Materialien, Atom- und Molekularphysik sowie Optik
- Elektronische Version(en)
-
https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2016.271 (Zugang:
Geschlossen
)
