Hybrid Fourier-domain mode-locked laser for ultra-wideband linearly chirped microwave waveform generation

Jian Tang, Beibei Zhu, Weifeng Zhang, Ming Li, Shilong Pan, Jianping Yao*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

50 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We show the generation of a tunable linearly chirped microwave waveform (LCMW) with an ultra-large time-bandwidth product (TBWP) based on a hybrid Fourier-domain mode-locked (FDML) laser. The key device in the hybrid FDML laser is a silicon photonic integrated micro-disk resonator (MDR) which functions as an optical bandpass filter, to have strong wavelength selectivity and fast frequency tunability. By incorporating the integrated MDR in the fiber-based ring cavity to perform frequency-domain mode locking, an FDML laser is realized and a broadband frequency-chirped optical pulse is generated. By beating the frequency-chirped optical pulse with an optical carrier from a laser diode (LD) at a photodetector (PD), an LCMW is generated. The bandwidth of the LCMW is over 50 GHz and the temporal duration is over 30 µs, with an ultra-large TBWP of 1.5 × 106. Thanks to the strong tunability of the MDR in the FDML laser, the generated LCMW is fully tunable in terms of bandwidth, temporal duration, chirp rate, and center frequency.

Original languageEnglish
Article number3814
JournalNature Communications
Volume11
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2020
Externally publishedYes

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