Photonic chip-based low-noise microwave oscillator.

Numerous modern technologies are reliant on the low-phase noise and exquisite timing stability of microwave signals. Substantial progress has been made in the field of microwave photonics, whereby low-noise microwave signals are generated by the down-conversion of ultrastable optical references using a frequency comb1-3. Such systems, however, are constructed with bulk or fibre optics and are difficult to further reduce in size and power consumption. In this work we address this challenge by leveraging advances in integrated photonics to demonstrate low-noise microwave generation via two-point optical frequency division4,5. Narrow-linewidth self-injection-locked integrated lasers6,7 are stabilized to a miniature Fabry-Pérot cavity8, and the frequency gap between the lasers is divided with an efficient dark soliton frequency comb9. The stabilized output of the microcomb is photodetected to produce a microwave signal at 20 GHz with phase noise of -96 dBc Hz-1 at 100 Hz offset frequency that decreases to -135 dBc Hz-1 at 10 kHz offset-values that are unprecedented for an integrated photonic system. All photonic components can be heterogeneously integrated on a single chip, providing a significant advance for the application of photonics to high-precision navigation, communication and timing systems.

3D integration enables ultralow-noise isolator-free lasers in silicon photonics.

Photonic integrated circuits are widely used in applications such as telecommunications and data-centre interconnects1-5. However, in optical systems such as microwave synthesizers6, optical gyroscopes7 and atomic clocks8, photonic integrated circuits are still considered inferior solutions despite their advantages in size, weight, power consumption and cost. Such high-precision and highly coherent applications favour ultralow-noise laser sources to be integrated with other photonic components in a compact and robustly aligned format-that is, on a single chip-for photonic integrated circuits to replace bulk optics and fibres. There are two major issues preventing the realization of such envisioned photonic integrated circuits: the high phase noise of semiconductor lasers and the difficulty of integrating optical isolators directly on-chip. Here we challenge this convention by leveraging three-dimensional integration that results in ultralow-noise lasers with isolator-free operation for silicon photonics. Through multiple monolithic and heterogeneous processing sequences, direct on-chip integration of III-V gain medium and ultralow-loss silicon nitride waveguides with optical loss around 0.5 decibels per metre are demonstrated. Consequently, the demonstrated photonic integrated circuit enters a regime that gives rise to ultralow-noise lasers and microwave synthesizers without the need for optical isolators, owing to the ultrahigh-quality-factor cavity. Such photonic integrated circuits also offer superior scalability for complex functionalities and volume production, as well as improved stability and reliability over time. The three-dimensional integration on ultralow-loss photonic integrated circuits thus marks a critical step towards complex systems and networks on silicon.

Hydroxyl ion absorption in on-chip high-Q resonators.

Thermal silica is a common dielectric used in all-silicon photonic circuits. Additionally, bound hydroxyl ions (Si-OH) can provide a significant component of optical loss in this material on account of the wet nature of the thermal oxidation process. A convenient way to quantify this loss relative to other mechanisms is through OH absorption at 1380 nm. Here, using ultra-high-quality factor (Q-factor) thermal-silica wedge microresonators, the OH absorption loss peak is measured and distinguished from the scattering loss baseline over a wavelength range from 680 nm to 1550 nm. Record-high on-chip resonator Q-factors are observed for near-visible and visible wavelengths, and the absorption limited Q-factor is as high as 8 billion in the telecom band. Hydroxyl ion content level around 2.4 ppm (weight) is inferred from both Q measurements and by secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) depth profiling.

AlGaAs soliton microcombs at room temperature.

Soliton mode locking in high-Q microcavities provides a way to integrate frequency comb systems. Among material platforms, AlGaAs has one of the largest optical nonlinearity coefficients, and is advantageous for low-pump-threshold comb generation. However, AlGaAs also has a very large thermo-optic effect that destabilizes soliton formation, and femtosecond soliton pulse generation has only been possible at cryogenic temperatures. Here, soliton generation in AlGaAs microresonators at room temperature is reported for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. The destabilizing thermo-optic effect is shown to instead provide stability in the high-repetition-rate soliton regime (corresponding to a large, normalized second-order dispersion parameter D2/κ). Single soliton and soliton crystal generation with sub-milliwatt optical pump power are demonstrated. The generality of this approach is verified in a high-Q silica microtoroid where manual tuning into the soliton regime is demonstrated. Besides the advantages of large optical nonlinearity, these AlGaAs devices are natural candidates for integration with semiconductor pump lasers. Furthermore, the approach should generalize to any high-Q resonator material platform.

Reaching fiber-laser coherence in integrated photonics.

We self-injection-lock a diode laser to a 1.41 m long, ultra-high Q integrated resonator. The hybrid integrated laser reaches a frequency noise floor of 0.006Hz2/Hz at 4 MHz offset, corresponding to a Lorentzian linewidth below 40 mHz-a record among semiconductor lasers. It also exhibits exceptional stability at low-offset frequencies, with frequency noise of 200Hz2/Hz at 100 Hz offset. Such performance, realized in a system comprised entirely of integrated photonic chips, marks a milestone in the development of integrated photonics; and, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, exceeds the frequency noise performance of commercially available, high-performance fiber lasers.

Directly pumped 10 GHz microcomb modules from low-power diode lasers.

Soliton microcombs offer the prospect of advanced optical metrology and timing systems in compact form factors. In these applications, the pumping of microcombs directly from a semiconductor laser without amplification or triggering components is desirable to reduce system power and to simplify system design. At the same time, low-repetition-rate microcombs are required in many comb applications as an interface to detectors and electronics, but their increased mode volume makes them challenging to pump at low power. Here 10 GHz repetition rate soliton microcombs are directly pumped by low-power (<20 mW) diode lasers. High-Q silica microresonators are used for this low-power operation and are packaged into fiber-connectorized modules that feature temperature control for improved long-term frequency stability.

Fiber taper characterization by optical backscattering reflectometry.

Fiber tapers provide a way to rapidly measure the spectra of many types of optical microcavities. Proper fabrication of the taper ensures that its width varies sufficiently slowly (adiabatically) along the length of the taper so as to maintain single spatial mode propagation. This is usually accomplished by monitoring the spectral transmission through the taper. In addition to this characterization method it is also helpful to know the taper width versus length. By developing a model of optical backscattering within the fiber taper, it is possible to use backscatter measurements to characterize the taper width versus length. The model uses the concept of a local taper numerical aperture to accurately account for varying backscatter collection along the length of the taper. In addition to taper profile information, the backscatter reflectometry method delineates locations along the taper where fluctuations in fiber core refractive index, cladding refractive index, and taper surface roughness each provide the dominant source of backscattering. Rayleigh backscattering coefficients are also extracted by fitting the data with the model and are consistent with the fiber manufacturer's datasheet. The optical backscattering reflectometer is also used to observe defects resulting from microcracks and surface contamination. All of this information can be obtained before the taper is removed from its fabrication apparatus. The backscattering method should also be prove useful for characterization of nanofibers.

Phonon-Limited-Linewidth of Brillouin Lasers at Cryogenic Temperatures.

Laser linewidth is of central importance in spectroscopy, frequency metrology, and all applications of lasers requiring high coherence. It is also of fundamental importance, because the Schawlow-Townes laser linewidth limit is of quantum origin. Recently, a theory of stimulated Brillouin laser (SBL) linewidth has been reported. While the SBL linewidth formula exhibits power and optical Q factor dependences that are identical to the Schawlow-Townes formula, a source of noise not present in conventional lasers, phonon occupancy of the Brillouin mechanical mode is predicted to be the dominant SBL linewidth contribution. Moreover, the quantum limit of the SBL linewidth is predicted to be twice the Schawlow-Townes limit on account of phonon participation. To help confirm this theory the SBL fundamental linewidth is measured at cryogenic temperatures in a silica microresonator. Its temperature dependence and the SBL linewidth theory are combined to predict the number of thermomechanical quanta at three temperatures. The result agrees with the Bose-Einstein phonon occupancy of the microwave-rate Brillouin mode in support of the SBL linewidth theory prediction.

A picogram- and nanometre-scale photonic-crystal optomechanical cavity.

The dynamic back-action caused by electromagnetic forces (radiation pressure) in optical and microwave cavities is of growing interest. Back-action cooling, for example, is being pursued as a means of achieving the quantum ground state of macroscopic mechanical oscillators. Work in the optical domain has revolved around millimetre- or micrometre-scale structures using the radiation pressure force. By comparison, in microwave devices, low-loss superconducting structures have been used for gradient-force-mediated coupling to a nanomechanical oscillator of picogram mass. Here we describe measurements of an optical system consisting of a pair of specially patterned nanoscale beams in which optical and mechanical energies are simultaneously localized to a cubic-micron-scale volume, and for which large per-photon optical gradient forces are realized. The resulting scale of the per-photon force and the mass of the structure enable the exploration of cavity optomechanical regimes in which, for example, the mechanical rigidity of the structure is dominantly provided by the internal light field itself. In addition to precision measurement and sensitive force detection, nano-optomechanics may find application in reconfigurable and tunable photonic systems, light-based radio-frequency communication and the generation of giant optical nonlinearities for wavelength conversion and optical buffering.

Optomechanical crystals.

Periodicity in materials yields interesting and useful phenomena. Applied to the propagation of light, periodicity gives rise to photonic crystals, which can be precisely engineered for such applications as guiding and dispersing optical beams, tightly confining and trapping light resonantly, and enhancing nonlinear optical interactions. Photonic crystals can also be formed into planar lightwave circuits for the integration of optical and electrical microsystems. In a photonic crystal, the periodicity of the host medium is used to manipulate the properties of light, whereas a phononic crystal uses periodicity to manipulate mechanical vibrations. As has been demonstrated in studies of Raman-like scattering in epitaxially grown vertical cavity structures and photonic crystal fibres, the simultaneous confinement of mechanical and optical modes in periodic structures can lead to greatly enhanced light-matter interactions. A logical next step is thus to create planar circuits that act as both photonic and phononic crystals: optomechanical crystals. Here we describe the design, fabrication and characterization of a planar, silicon-chip-based optomechanical crystal capable of co-localizing and strongly coupling 200-terahertz photons and 2-gigahertz phonons. These planar optomechanical crystals bring the powerful techniques of optics and photonic crystals to bear on phononic crystals, providing exquisitely sensitive (near quantum-limited), optical measurements of mechanical vibrations, while simultaneously providing strong nonlinear interactions for optics in a large and technologically relevant range of frequencies.

Design and characterization of whispering-gallery spiral waveguides.

Whispering gallery delay lines have demonstrated record propagation length on a silicon chip and can provide a way to transfer certain applications of optical fiber to wafer-based systems. Their design and fabrication requires careful control of waveguide curvature and etching conditions to minimize connection losses between elements of the delay line. Moreover, loss characterization based on optical backscatter requires normalization to account for the impact of curvature on backscatter rate. In this paper we provide details on design of Archimedean whispering-gallery spiral waveguides, their coupling into cascaded structures, as well as optical loss characterization by optical backscatter reflectometry.

Pump frequency noise coupling into a microcavity by thermo-optic locking.

As thermo-optic locking is widely used to establish a stable frequency detuning between an external laser and a high Q microcavity, it is important to understand how this method affects microcavity temperature and frequency fluctuations. A theoretical analysis of the laser-microcavity frequency fluctuations is presented and used to find the spectral dependence of the suppression of laser-microcavity, relative frequency noise caused by thermo-optic locking. The response function is that of a high-pass filter with a bandwidth and low-frequency suppression that increase with input power. The results are verified using an external-cavity diode laser and a silica disk resonator. The locking of relative frequency fluctuations causes temperature fluctuations within the microcavity that transfer pump frequency noise onto the microcavity modes over the thermal locking bandwidth. This transfer is verified experimentally. These results are important to investigations of noise properties in many nonlinear microcavity experiments in which low-frequency, optical-pump frequency noise must be considered.

Low-noise Brillouin laser on a chip at 1064 nm.

We demonstrate narrow-linewidth-stimulated Brillouin lasers at 1064 nm from ultra-high-Q silica wedge disk resonators on silicon. Fundamental Schawlow-Townes frequency noise of the laser is on the order of 0.1 Hz2/Hz. The technical noise spectrum of the on-chip Brillouin laser is close to the thermodynamic noise limit of the resonator (thermorefractive noise) and is comparable to that of ultra-narrow-linewidth Nd:YAG lasers. The relative intensity noise of the Brillouin laser also is reduced by using an intensity-stabilized pump laser. Finally, low-noise microwave synthesis up to 32 GHz is demonstrated by heterodyne of first and third Brillouin Stokes lines from a single resonator.

Supercontinuum generation in an on-chip silica waveguide.

Supercontinuum generation is demonstrated in an on-chip silica spiral waveguide by launching 180 fs pulses from an optical parametric oscillator at the center wavelength of 1330 nm. With a coupled pulse energy of 2.17 nJ, the broadest spectrum in the fundamental TM mode extends from 936 to 1888 nm (162 THz) at -50 dB from peak. There is a good agreement between the measured spectrum and a simulation using a generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation.

Multimodality integrated microresonators using the Moiré speedup effect.

High-Q microresonators are indispensable components of photonic integrated circuits and offer several useful operational modes. However, these modes cannot be reconfigured after fabrication because they are fixed by the resonator's physical geometry. In this work, we propose a Moiré speedup dispersion tuning method that enables a microresonator device to operate in any of three modes. Electrical tuning of Vernier coupled rings switches operating modality to Brillouin laser, bright microcomb, and dark microcomb operation on demand using the same hybrid-integrated device. Brillouin phase matching and microcomb operation across the telecom C-band is demonstrated. Likewise, by using a single-pump wavelength, the operating mode can be switched. As a result, one universal design can be applied across a range of applications. The device brings flexible mixed-mode operation to integrated photonic circuits.

Characterization of a high coherence, Brillouin microcavity laser on silicon.

Recently, a high efficiency, narrow-linewidth, chip-based stimulated Brillouin laser (SBL) was demonstrated using an ultra-high-Q, silica-on-silicon resonator. In this work, this novel laser is more fully characterized. The Schawlow Townes linewidth formula for Brillouin laser operation is derived and compared to linewidth data, and the fitting is used to measure the mechanical thermal quanta contribution to the Brillouin laser linewidth. A study of laser mode pulling by the Brillouin optical gain spectrum is also presented, and high-order, cascaded operation of the SBL is demonstrated. Potential application of these devices to microwave sources and phase-coherent communication is discussed.

A general design algorithm for low optical loss adiabatic connections in waveguides.

Single-mode waveguide designs frequently support higher order transverse modes, usually as a consequence of process limitations such as lithography. In these systems, it is important to minimize coupling to higher-order modes so that the system nonetheless behaves single mode. We propose a variational approach to design adiabatic waveguide connections with minimal intermodal coupling. An application of this algorithm in designing the "S-bend" of a whispering-gallery spiral waveguide is demonstrated with approximately 0.05 dB insertion loss. Compared to other approaches, our algorithm requires less fabrication resolution and is able to minimize the transition loss over a broadband spectrum. The method can be applied to a wide range of turns and connections and has the advantage of handling connections with arbitrary boundary conditions.

Sideband spectroscopy and dispersion measurement in microcavities.

The measurement of dispersion and its control have become important considerations in nonlinear devices based on microcavities. A sideband technique is applied here to accurately measure dispersion in a microcavity resulting from both geometrical and material contributions. Moreover, by combining the method with finite element simulations, we show that mapping of spectral lines to their corresponding transverse mode families is possible. The method is applicable for high-Q, micro-cavities having microwave rate free spectral range and has a relative precision of 5.5 × 10(-6) for a 2 mm disk cavity with FSR of 32.9382 GHz and Q of 150 milllion.

Low-pump-power, low-phase-noise, and microwave to millimeter-wave repetition rate operation in microcombs.

Microresonator-based frequency combs (microcombs or Kerr combs) can potentially miniaturize the numerous applications of conventional frequency combs. A priority is the realization of broadband (ideally octave spanning) spectra at detectable repetition rates for comb self-referencing. However, access to these rates involves pumping larger mode volumes and hence higher threshold powers. Moreover, threshold power sets both the scale for power per comb tooth and also the optical pump. Along these lines, it is shown that a class of resonators having surface-loss-limited Q factors can operate over a wide range of repetition rates with minimal variation in threshold power. A new, surface-loss-limited resonator illustrates the idea. Comb generation on mode spacings ranging from 2.6 to 220 GHz with overall low threshold power (as low as 1 mW) is demonstrated. A record number of comb lines for a microcomb (around 1900) is also observed with pump power of 200 mW. The ability to engineer a wide range of repetition rates with these devices is also used to investigate a recently observed mechanism in microcombs associated with dispersion of subcomb offset frequencies. We observe high-coherence phase locking in cases where these offset frequencies are small enough so as to be tuned into coincidence. In these cases, a record-low microcomb phase noise is reported at a level comparable to an open-loop, high-performance microwave oscillator.

Probing material absorption and optical nonlinearity of integrated photonic materials.

Optical microresonators with high quality (Q) factors are essential to a wide range of integrated photonic devices. Steady efforts have been directed towards increasing microresonator Q factors across a variety of platforms. With success in reducing microfabrication process-related optical loss as a limitation of Q, the ultimate attainable Q, as determined solely by the constituent microresonator material absorption, has come into focus. Here, we report measurements of the material-limited Q factors in several photonic material platforms. High-Q microresonators are fabricated from thin films of SiO2, Si3N4, Al0.2Ga0.8As, and Ta2O5. By using cavity-enhanced photothermal spectroscopy, the material-limited Q is determined. The method simultaneously measures the Kerr nonlinearity in each material and reveals how material nonlinearity and ultimate Q vary in a complementary fashion across photonic materials. Besides guiding microresonator design and material development in four material platforms, the results help establish performance limits in future photonic integrated systems.