Midinfrared frequency combs from coherent supercontinuum in chalcogenide and optical parametric oscillation.

ABSTRACT

We observe the coherence of the supercontinuum generated in a nanospike chalcogenide-silica hybrid waveguide pumped at 2 µm. The supercontinuum is shown to be coherent with the pump by interfering it with a doubly resonant optical parametric oscillator (OPO) that is itself coherent with the shared pump laser. This enables coherent locking of the OPO to the optically referenced pump frequency comb, resulting in a composite frequency comb with wavelengths from 1 to 6 µm.