Microresonator soliton dual-comb imaging

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

Fast-responding detector arrays are commonly used for imaging rapidly-changing scenes. Besides array detectors, a single-pixel detector combined with a broadband optical spectrum can also be used for rapid imaging by mapping the spectrum into a spatial coordinate and then rapidly measuring the spectrum. Here, broadband optical frequency combs generated from high-\(Q\) silica microresonators are used to implement this method. The microcomb is dispersed in two spatial dimensions to measure a test target. The target-encoded spectrum is then measured rapidly by multi-heterodyne beating with another microcomb having a slightly different repetition rate. The rapid image acquisition capability is also used to monitor the flow of microparticles in a fluid cell. This demonstration establishes that light sources and dual-comb detection methods for this form of rapid imaging can have a comparable chip-scale form factor to compact detector arrays.

Related collections

Most cited references 12

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Microresonator-based optical frequency combs.

T. Kippenberg, R. Holzwarth, S. Diddams (2011)

The series of precisely spaced, sharp spectral lines that form an optical frequency comb is enabling unprecedented measurement capabilities and new applications in a wide range of topics that include precision spectroscopy, atomic clocks, ultracold gases, and molecular fingerprinting. A new optical frequency comb generation principle has emerged that uses parametric frequency conversion in high resonance quality factor (Q) microresonators. This approach provides access to high repetition rates in the range of 10 to 1000 gigahertz through compact, chip-scale integration, permitting an increased number of comb applications, such as in astronomy, microwave photonics, or telecommunications. We review this emerging area and discuss opportunities that it presents for novel technologies as well as for fundamental science.

0 comments Cited 602 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Microresonator-based solitons for massively parallel coherent optical communications

Pablo Marin-Palomo, Juned N. Kemal, Maxim Karpov … (2017)

Solitons are waveforms that preserve their shape while propagating, as a result of a balance of dispersion and nonlinearity. Soliton-based data transmission schemes were investigated in the 1980s and showed promise as a way of overcoming the limitations imposed by dispersion of optical fibres. However, these approaches were later abandoned in favour of wavelength-division multiplexing schemes, which are easier to implement and offer improved scalability to higher data rates. Here we show that solitons could make a comeback in optical communications, not as a competitor but as a key element of massively parallel wavelength-division multiplexing. Instead of encoding data on the soliton pulse train itself, we use continuous-wave tones of the associated frequency comb as carriers for communication. Dissipative Kerr solitons (DKSs) (solitons that rely on a double balance of parametric gain and cavity loss, as well as dispersion and nonlinearity) are generated as continuously circulating pulses in an integrated silicon nitride microresonator via four-photon interactions mediated by the Kerr nonlinearity, leading to low-noise, spectrally smooth, broadband optical frequency combs. We use two interleaved DKS frequency combs to transmit a data stream of more than 50 terabits per second on 179 individual optical carriers that span the entire telecommunication C and L bands (centred around infrared telecommunication wavelengths of 1.55 micrometres). We also demonstrate coherent detection of a wavelength-division multiplexing data stream by using a pair of DKS frequency combs—one as a multi-wavelength light source at the transmitter and the other as the corresponding local oscillator at the receiver. This approach exploits the scalability of microresonator-based DKS frequency comb sources for massively parallel optical communications at both the transmitter and the receiver. Our results demonstrate the potential of these sources to replace the arrays of continuous-wave lasers that are currently used in high-speed communications. In combination with advanced spatial multiplexing schemes and highly integrated silicon photonic circuits, DKS frequency combs could bring chip-scale petabit-per-second transceivers into reach.