Connor Fredrick

An optical-frequency synthesizer using integrated photonics.

Integrated-photonics microchips now enable a range of advanced functionalities for high-coherence applications such as data transmission, highly optimized physical sensors, and harnessing quantum states, but with cost, efficiency, and portability much beyond tabletop experiments. Through high-volume semiconductor processing built around advanced materials there exists an opportunity for integrated devices to impact applications cutting across disciplines of basic science and technology. Here we show how to synthesize the absolute frequency of a lightwave signal, using integrated photonics to implement lasers, system interconnects, and nonlinear frequency comb generation. The laser frequency output of our synthesizer is programmed by a microwave clock across 4 THz near 1550 nm with 1 Hz resolution and traceability to the SI second. This is accomplished with a heterogeneously integrated III/V-Si tunable laser, which is guided by dual dissipative-Kerr-soliton frequency combs fabricated on silicon chips. Through out-of-loop measurements of the phase-coherent, microwave-to-optical link, we verify that the fractional-frequency instability of the integrated photonics synthesizer matches the 7.0x10^(−13) reference-clock instability for a 1 second acquisition, and constrain any synthesis error to 7.7x10^(−15) while stepping the synthesizer across the telecommunication C band. Any application of an optical frequency source would be enabled by the precision optical synthesis presented here. Building on the ubiquitous capability in the microwave domain, our results demonstrate a first path to synthesis with integrated photonics, leveraging low-cost, low-power, and compact features that will be critical for its widespread use.Optical-frequency synthesizers, which generate frequency-stable light from a single microwave-frequency reference, are revolutionizing ultrafast science and metrology, but their size, power requirement and cost need to be reduced if they are to be more widely used. Integrated-photonics microchips can be used in high-coherence applications, such as data transmission1, highly optimized physical sensors2 and harnessing quantum states3, to lower cost and increase efficiency and portability. Here we describe a method for synthesizing the absolute frequency of a lightwave signal, using integrated photonics to create a phase-coherent microwave-to-optical link. We use a heterogeneously integrated III–V/silicon tunable laser, which is guided by nonlinear frequency combs fabricated on separate silicon chips and pumped by off-chip lasers. The laser frequency output of our optical-frequency synthesizer can be programmed by a microwave clock across 4 terahertz near 1,550 nanometres (the telecommunications C-band) with 1 hertz resolution. Our measurements verify that the output of the synthesizer is exceptionally stable across this region (synthesis error of 7.7 × 10−15 or below). Any application of an optical-frequency source could benefit from the high-precision optical synthesis presented here. Leveraging high-volume semiconductor processing built around advanced materials could allow such low-cost, low-power and compact integrated-photonics devices to be widely used.An optical-frequency synthesizer based on stabilized frequency combs has been developed utilizing chip-scale devices as key components, in a move towards using integrated photonics technology for ultrafast science and metrology.

Coherent ultra-violet to near-infrared generation in silica ridge waveguides

Short duration, intense pulses of light can experience dramatic spectral broadening when propagating through lengths of optical fibre. This continuum generation process is caused by a combination of nonlinear optical effects including the formation of dispersive waves. Optical analogues of Cherenkov radiation, these waves allow a pulse to radiate power into a distant spectral region. In this work, efficient and coherent dispersive wave generation of visible to ultraviolet light is demonstrated in silica waveguides on a silicon chip. Unlike fibre broadeners, the arrays provide a wide range of emission wavelength choices on a single, compact chip. This new capability is used to simplify offset frequency measurements of a mode-locked frequency comb. The arrays can also enable mode-locked lasers to attain unprecedented tunable spectral reach for spectroscopy, bioimaging, tomography and metrology.

The habitable-zone planet finder: engineering and commissioning on the Hobby Eberly telescope (Conference Presentation)

The Habitable-Zone Planet Finder (HPF) is a stabilized, fiber-fed, NIR spectrometer recently commissioned at the 10m Hobby-Eberly telescope (HET). HPF has been designed and built from the ground up to be capable of discovering low mass planets around mid-late M dwarfs using the Doppler radial velocity technique. Novel apects of the instrument design include mili-kelvin temperature control, careful attending to fiber scrambling, and optics, mounting and detector readout schemes designed to minimize drifts and maximize the radial velocity precision. The optical design of the HPF is an asymmetric white pupil spectrograph layout in a vacuum cryostat cooled to 180 K. The spectrograph uses gold-coated mirrors, a mosaic echelle grating, and a single Teledyne Hawaii-2RG (H2RG) NIR detector with a 1.7-micron cutoff covering parts of the information-rich z, Y and J NIR bands at a spectral resolution of R~55,000. The use of 1.7 micron H2RG enables HPF to operate warmer than most other cryogenic instruments- with the instrument operating at 180K (allowing normal glasses to be used in the camera) and the detector at 120K. We summarize the engineering and commissioning tests on the telescope and the current radial velocity performance of HPF. With data in hand we revisit some of the design trades that went into the instrument design to explore the remaining tall poles in precision RV measurements in the near-infrared. HPF seeks to extend the precision radial velocity technique from the optical to the near-infrared, and in this presentation, we seek to share with the community our experience in this relatively new regime.

Versatile silicon-waveguide supercontinuum for coherent mid-infrared spectroscopy

Infrared spectroscopy is a powerful tool for basic and applied science. The molecular spectral fingerprints in the 3 um to 20 um region provide a means to uniquely identify molecular structure for fundamental spectroscopy, atmospheric chemistry, trace and hazardous gas detection, and biological microscopy. Driven by such applications, the development of low-noise, coherent laser sources with broad, tunable coverage is a topic of great interest. Laser frequency combs possess a unique combination of precisely defined spectral lines and broad bandwidth that can enable the above-mentioned applications. Here, we leverage robust fabrication and geometrical dispersion engineering of silicon nanophotonic waveguides for coherent frequency comb generation spanning 70 THz in the mid-infrared (2.5 um to 6.2 um). Precise waveguide fabrication provides significant spectral broadening and engineered spectra targeted at specific mid-infrared bands. We use this coherent light source for dual-comb spectroscopy at 5 um.

On-chip waveguides for self-referencing low-power and high-repetition-rate laser frequency combs

Using silicon nitride and aluminum nitride chip-integrated waveguides, we demonstrate supercontinuum spanning 500-4000 nm. We detect the carrier-envelope-offset frequency using total optical power below 15 mW, or, alternatively, directly from the waveguide output.