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The present paper is concerned with the analytical and numerical investigation of the dynamics of a broad-area vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). It is shown that the adiabatic polarization elimination does not affect the modulation instability developing in the system. The efficiency of the method of external injection at different shapes of the pump current profile is verified. It is shown that for effective stabilization by optical injection beam with minimum amplitude it is necessary to use pump current profiles with smoother edges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frequency combs are powerful tools for many applications and high performances are achieved by stabilizing these lasers. For operation in the mid‐infrared, quantum cascade lasers (QCL) are ideal candidates as they present numerous advantages. However, stabilized QCL‐combs lack a detailed characterization of their noise properties due to the sensitivity limits of current analyzing techniques. To overcome these challenges, what is believed to be the first tightly locked dual QCL‐comb system is developed. Its use is twofold. First, phase noise analysis of the dual‐comb signal shows residual phase noise below 600 mrad for all comb lines, and the comb coherence as well as the performances of the repetition frequency locking mechanism is characterized. Second, coherent averaging with a 7 × 105 Hz1/2 figure‐of‐merit system is demonstrated, which is compatible with high‐precision spectroscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Today’s precision experiments for timekeeping, inertial sensing, and fundamental science place strict requirements on the spectral distribution of laser frequency noise. Rubidium-based experiments utilize table-top 780 nm laser systems for high-performance clocks, gravity sensors, and quantum gates. Wafer-scale integration of these lasers is critical for enabling systems-on-chip. Despite progress towards chip-scale 780 nm ultra-narrow linewidth lasers, achieving sub-Hz fundamental linewidth and sub-kHz integral linewidth has remained elusive. Here we report a hybrid integrated 780 nm self-injection locked laser with 0.74 Hz fundamental and 864 Hz integral linewidths and thermorefractive-noise-limited 100 Hz2/Hz at 10 kHz. These linewidths are over an order of magnitude lower than previous photonic-integrated 780 nm implementations. The laser consists of a Fabry-Pérot diode edge-coupled to an on-chip splitter and a tunable 90 million Q resonator realized in the CMOS foundry-compatible silicon nitride platform. We achieve 2 mW output power, 36 dB side mode suppression ratio, and a 2.5 GHz mode-hop-free tuning range. To demonstrate the potential for quantum atomic applications, we analyze the laser noise influence on sensitivity limits for atomic clocks, quantum gates, and atom interferometer gravimeters. This technology can be translated to other atomic wavelengths, enabling compact, ultra-low noise lasers for quantum sensing, computing, and metrology.

Frequency combs are powerful tools for many applications and high performances are achieved by stabilizing these lasers. For operation in the mid‐infrared, quantum cascade lasers (QCL) are ideal candidates as they present numerous advantages. However, stabilized QCL‐combs lack a detailed characterization of their noise properties due to the sensitivity limits of current analyzing techniques. To overcome these challenges, what is believed to be the first tightly locked dual QCL‐comb system is developed. Its use is twofold. First, phase noise analysis of the dual‐comb signal shows residual phase noise below 600 mrad for all comb lines, and the comb coherence as well as the performances of the repetition frequency locking mechanism is characterized. Second, coherent averaging with a 7 × 105 Hz1/2 figure‐of‐merit system is demonstrated, which is compatible with high‐precision spectroscopy.

Controlling the delivery of multi-terawatt and petawatt laser pulses to final focus, both in position and angle, is critical to many laser applications such as optical guiding, laser–plasma acceleration, and laser-produced secondary radiation. We present an online, non-destructive laser diagnostic, capable of measuring the transverse position and pointing angle at focus. The diagnostic is based on a unique double-surface-coated wedged-mirror design for the final steering optic in the laser line, producing a witness beam highly correlated with the main beam. By propagating low-power kilohertz pulses to focus, we observed spectra of focus position and pointing angle fluctuations dominated by frequencies below 70 Hz. The setup was also used to characterize the excellent position and pointing angle correlation of the 1 Hz high-power laser pulses to this low-power kilohertz pulse train, opening a promising path to fast non-perturbative feedback concepts even on few-hertz-class high-power laser systems.

Controlling the delivery of multi-terawatt and petawatt laser pulses to final focus, both in position and angle, is critical to many laser applications such as optical guiding, laser-plasma acceleration, and laser-produced secondary radiation. We present an online, non-destructive laser diagnostic, capable of measuring the transverse position and pointing angle at focus. The diagnostic is based on a unique double-surface-coated wedged-mirror design for the final steering optic in the laser line, producing a witness beam highly correlated with the main beam. By propagating low-power kilohertz pulses to focus, we observed spectra of focus position and pointing angle fluctuations dominated by frequencies below 70 Hz. The setup was also used to characterize the excellent position and pointing angle correlation of the 1 Hz high-power laser pulses to this low-power kilohertz pulse train, opening a promising path to fast non-perturbative feedback concepts even on few-hertz-class high-power laser systems.

A robust and compact blue optical frequency reference within blue region was designed. A 40‐mW tellurium‐stabilized single‐frequency blue diode laser in external cavity was designed with an absorption spectroscopy method based on tellurium molecular transitions. Furthermore, the uncertainty of the frequency stabilization can be pushed to 2 × 10−9 at a 10‐s integration time. In addition, the correspondence frequency instability was 1.3 MHz when the laser wavelength was 445.75 nm. This study indicates that high‐stability frequency reference within the blue region can be achieved with an external cavity diode laser as opposed to the diode‐pumped frequency‐doubled solid‐state laser. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stabilization and manipulation of laser frequency by means of an external cavity are nearly ubiquitously used in fundamental research and laser applications. While most of the laser light transmits through the cavity, in the presence of some back-scattered light from the cavity to the laser, the self-injection locking effect can take place, which locks the laser emission frequency to the cavity mode of similar frequency. The self-injection locking leads to dramatic reduction of laser linewidth and noise. Using this approach, a common semiconductor laser locked to an ultrahigh-Q microresonator can obtain sub-Hertz linewidth, on par with state-of-the-art fiber lasers. Therefore it paves the way to manufacture high-performance semiconductor lasers with reduced footprint and cost. Moreover, with high laser power, the optical nonlinearity of the microresonator drastically changes the laser dynamics, offering routes for simultaneous pulse and frequency comb generation in the same microresonator. Particularly, integrated photonics technology, enabling components fabricated via semiconductor CMOS process, has brought increasing and extending interest to laser manufacturing using this method. In this article, we present a comprehensive tutorial on analytical and numerical methods of laser self-injection locking, as well a review of most recent theoretical and experimental achievements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This tutorial provides a hands-on entry point about laser locking for atomic vapor research and related research such as laser cooling. We furthermore introduce common materials and methods for the fabrication of vapor cells as a tool for this research. Its aim is not to be exhaustive, but rather to provide an overview about the possible techniques that are actively employed in labs today. Some critical parameters of locked laser system for use with thermal atomic vapors are introduced and discussed. To exemplify this, we describe a versatile locking system that caters for many of the needs we found during our research with thermal atomic vapors. We also emphasize the compromises we took during our decision-making process.

Pointing fluctuations of beams reduce the possibility of incoherent or coherent addition for ultrahigh peak power in a multi-beam picosecond–petawatt laser system. Pointing fluctuations on the target were observed on Shenguang Upgrade Petawatt (SGII-UP-Petawatt) beam using a high-speed and high-resolution active pointing stabilization control system. The maximum frequency of the pointing fluctuations was less than 50 Hz, and the amplitude was approximately 2.8 µrad (RMS). An online test of pointing fluctuations with active stabilization control demonstrated that pointing fluctuations could be reduced to 0.63 µrad (RMS), approximately one-quarter of that without active stabilization control. The benefits of reduced pointing fluctuation were estimated using a multi-beamlet petawatt laser system; the results demonstrated that peak power could be increased by 51.7% when active stabilization control was used in an eight-beamlet picosecond–petawatt laser system.

Keywords: Nanopositioning- and nanomeasuring machines; optical frequency comb; He-Ne laser; traceability; laser stabilization; Nanopositionier- und Nanomessmaschinen; Optische Frequenzkämme; He-Ne Laser; Rückführbarkeit; Laserstabilisierung EN Nanopositioning- and nanomeasuring machines optical frequency comb He-Ne laser traceability laser stabilization DE Nanopositionier- und Nanomessmaschinen Optische Frequenzkämme He-Ne Laser Rückführbarkeit Laserstabilisierung 687 703 17 09/26/22 20221001 NES 221001 1 Introduction The rapid development and increasing impact of nanotechnology in research and industry entails the application of new fabrication approaches and characterization tools that allow to manipulate, characterize and image three dimensional nanostructures with (sub)nanometer precision and increasing scanning speed over several tens to hundreds millimeters measurement range [[1]], [[2]], [[3]], [[4]], [[5]]. To lock the repetition rate HT ht to the RF-reference its fourth harmonic is mixed with the fixed frequency output of a phase-locked oscillator (PLO) [[33]]. The He-Ne lasers are part of a compact, enclosed laser module that contains three gas lasers stabilized with a two-mode-comparison technique [[22]] as well as the laser control and stabilization electronics. The iodine-stabilized He-Ne laser indicates a HT ht - dependence as described in [[47]]. [Extracted from the article]

We demonstrate the construction of the optical system in the atomic clock-beyond atomic fountain based on 87Rb atom. The optical system includes a high-stability laser system and an optical lattice. The high-stability laser system with the new scheme of frequency locking and shift is introduced in detail, which is an important laser source for laser cooling. The optimized frequency and intensity stability are achieved to 4 × 10–14τ−1/2 (τ is the averaging time) and 4 × 10–5τ−1/2, respectively, which are highly stable. On the basis of the conventional atomic fountain clock, the optical lattice is specially investigated along the direction of gravity and its characteristics are studied systematically. For the optimized and novel exploration, we predict the achievable stability of 3.6×10−14τ−1/2 and it has the potential to be improved to 3.6×10−15τ−1/2. The realizability of the construction due to the stabilized laser and optical lattice makes the beyond fountain promising candidate for the next-generation high performance microwave atomic clock.

Future space-based geodesy missions such as the Mass Change Mission and the Next Generation Gravity Mission are expected to rely on laser ranging as their primary instrument. Short-term laser frequency stability has previously been achieved on the GRACE Follow On mission by stabilizing the lasers to an optical cavity. The development of a technique to provide long-term laser frequency stability is expected to be required. We have previously demonstrated a technique to track long-term frequency changes by using measurements of the optical cavity's free spectral range. In this paper, we calibrate this technique to absolute frequency by using an atomic reference. We have also validated an approach for on-ground calibration to allow the absolute frequency to be determined whilst in orbit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating photonics with CMOS electronics in silicon is essential to enable chip-scale, electronic-photonic systems that will revolutionize classical and quantum communication and computing systems. However, the lack of an on-silicon isolator, capable of blocking unwanted back reflections and ensuring the stable operation of the laser, precluded many previous demonstrations from providing single-chip solutions. For most optical systems employing a laser, magneto-optic isolators have been indispensable, but such isolators are incompatible with silicon. To stabilize on-chip lasers, reflections-cancellation circuits were proposed as a way to reduce the reflections going back to the laser. Yet, a stable laser against time-varying back reflections was never demonstrated. Here we demonstrate a stable quantum well-distributed feedback (QWDFB) laser against slowly time-varying reflections using a reflections-cancellation circuit (RCC) on a foundry-produced, silicon-photonic (SiP) chip. The optical spectrum and the relative intensity noise (RIN) of the laser when the RCC was running is comparable to when an isolator was used. By accurately locking the laser in a stable optical feedback regime, the RCC further enhances the QWDFB laser performance by reducing its linewidth by a factor of 100, down to 3 kHz. Both results are enabled using novel techniques in the design, calibration, tuning, and control of the proposed SiP RCC. The optical insertion loss of the RCC is less than 1.5 dB for reflections smaller than −20 dB and can yield isolation ranges of up to 64 dB. Our device paves the way towards the mass production of fully integrated, low-cost electronic-photonic silicon chips without attaching magneto-optic isolators between the laser and the SiP chip. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residual amplitude modulation of the phase modulator deployed in Pound-Drever-Hall frequency stabilization is an effect known to cause instabilities to the absolute wavelength of the stabilized laser. We present measurements and analysis of the residual amplitude modulation in an InP-based waveguide electro-optic phase modulator. The modulator is monolithically integrated in the output waveguide of a tuneable laser. The effects on the frequency stabilization of such a laser system to a reference etalon using a Pound-Drever-Hall frequency stabilization scheme are quantified. Frequency offset values in the stabilization point from the reference Fabry-Perot etalon resonance caused by the amplitude modulation are predicted and optimum operating points to minimize residual amplitude modulation are discussed. By operating an electro-refractive phase modulator at the proper bias point, we show that frequency offsets corresponding to less than 3 × 10-3 of the reference cavity full-width half-maximum can be achieved.

To the best of our knowledge, this paper presents the first self-referenced polarization-maintaining (PM) Er: nonlinear polarization evolution-based fiber frequency comb. A short PM fiber section segment acts as an artificial saturable absorber and compensates for the group velocity mismatch. A conventional f-2f interferometer allows detecting carrier-envelope offsetting frequency (fceo) after an octave-spanning spectrum generation. A complete description of the PM Er: fiber comb combining a noise study of the repetition rate (fr) and fceo is presented. Accordingly, the in-loop residual phase noise of fceo and fr are 468 mrad and 0.336 mrad from 1 Hz to 3 MHz, respectively. Further, we verify the long-term performance of the comb system by recording the fluctuation of fr and fceo for more than 10 h. We observed that combining fast actuators for phase noise suppression would potentially enable a compact and robust frequency comb system for a range of applications such as comb-based liars, optical clock, and gas sensing.

Future space-based geodesy missions such as the Mass Change Mission and the Next Generation Gravity Mission are expected to rely on laser ranging as their primary instrument. Short-term laser frequency stability has previously been achieved on the GRACE Follow On mission by stabilizing the lasers to an optical cavity. The development of a technique to provide long-term laser frequency stability is expected to be required. We have previously demonstrated a technique to track long-term frequency changes by using measurements of the optical cavity’s free spectral range. In this paper, we calibrate this technique to absolute frequency by using an atomic reference. We have also validated an approach for on-ground calibration to allow the absolute frequency to be determined whilst in orbit.

Lasers with high spectral purity can enable a diverse application space, including precision spectroscopy, coherent high‐speed communications, physical sensing, and manipulation of quantum systems. Already, meticulous design and construction of bench Fabry–Perot cavities has made possible dramatic achievements in active laser‐linewidth reduction, predominantly for optical‐atomic clocks. Yet, there is increasing demand for miniaturized laser systems operating with high performance in ambient environments. Here, a compact and robust photonic‐atomic laser comprising a 2.5 centimeter long, 20 000 finesse, monolithic Fabry–Perot cavity integrated with a micromachined rubidium vapor cell is presented. By leveraging the short‐time frequency stability of the cavity and the long‐time frequency stability of atoms, an ultranarrow‐linewidth laser that enables integration for extended measurements is realized. Specifically, the laser supports a fractional‐frequency stability of 1×10−13 at an averaging time of 20 millisecond, 7×10−13 at 300 second, an integrated linewidth of 25 Hz that results from thermal noise, frequency noise floor as low as 0.06 Hz2 Hz−1, and a passive vibration immunity as low as 10−10g−1. The present work explores hybrid laser systems with monolithic photonic and atomic packages based on physical design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capability of optical reference cavities to resist ambient thermal fluctuations is significant in ultrastable laser systems especially applying in transportable system and space station. To reduce the deterioration of long-term laser frequency stability induced by temperature variation, the thermal response of cavities is investigated. The simulation and analysis indicate that the use of multiple enclosing thermal shields with a low emissivity allows a larger thermal time constant. The quantitative functional relationships between the thermal time constant and the heat capacity and surface emissivity of the passive thermal shields are firstly obtained using FEA simulation. Based on these results, a temperature-insensitive cavity system is designed with a thermal time constant of approximately 680 h. According to the designed system, two different methods are used to evaluate the thermal performance. And mathematical expressions for the cavity temperature over time are obtained. The calculated thermal time constant is validated by the simulated results. The thermal sensitivity of the designed system is 4.1 × 10−11 and 1.3 × 10−5 when temperature variation period is 1 h and 24 h, respectively. The fractional length instability of the cavities induced by temperature fluctuation is 8.2 × 10−16 over an average time of 1 day, which can compete theoretically with fountain clocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semiconductor mode-locked lasers can be used in a variety of applications ranging from multi-carrier sources for wavelength-division-multiplexed communication systems to time-base references for metrology. Their packaging in compact chip- or module-level systems remains, however, burdened by their strong sensitivity to back-reflections, quickly destroying the coherence of the mode-locking. Here, we investigate the stabilization of mode-locked lasers directly edge coupled to a silicon photonic integrated circuit, with the objective of moving isolators downstream to the output of the photonic circuit. A 2.77-kHz 3-dB RF linewidth, substantially improved compared to the 15.01 kHz of the free running laser, is obtained in the best case. Even in the presence of detrimental reflections from the photonic circuit, substantial linewidth reductions from 20 to 8.82 kHz, from 572 to 14.8 kHz, and from 1.5 MHz to 40 kHz are realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a modeling methodology tailored to predicting the wavelength and power output from a distributed Bragg reflector laser for use in quantum measurements. The relationship between power, wavelength, current, and temperature is acquired with a genetic algorithm (GA). The function set and termination set for GA are determined from the physical mechanisms of laser current, temperature, and output performance. To verify the validity of the method, measured data are divided into a training group and a test group. The test results show that our models can accurately predict the value of power and wavelength at the given current and temperature, with the RMSE of 13.4 μW and 6.0 × 10-5 nm, respectively. This method can help enhance the output performance of a laser. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper details a laser beam delivery and pointing stabilization system designed for the Laser-Assisted Charge Exchange (LACE) experiment at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) accelerator. The UV (355 nm) laser beam of 140 mJ pulses at 10 Hz must be transported over 65 m through a retrofitted laser transport line in a high-radiation area of the accelerator, causing the alignment of the beam to jitter and drift significantly on timescales of 0.1–1 s and > 1 min, respectively, due to thermal effects and other disturbances. The laser pointing stabilization system is based on a novel technique which uses active feedback between CMOS cameras and a piezoelectric steering mirror controlled by feedback software to make corrections to the horizontal angle and vertical position of the laser beam at 10 Hz. Low frequency drift is easily controlled, and the long-term stability is limited by the amplitude of high frequency components of the spectrum near the Nyquist limit (5 Hz). With feedback turned on, the root-mean-square (RMS) deviations of the horizontal angle and vertical position over 20 min fell from 314 to 157 μ rad and 309 to 167 μ m , respectively, which is below the pulse-to-pulse jitter at 10 Hz of 189 μ rad RMS and 180 μ m RMS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Time Service Center of China is developing a compact, highly stable, 698 nm external-cavity diode laser (ECDL) for dedicated use in a space strontium optical clock. This article presents the optical design, structural design, and preliminary performance of this ECDL. The ECDL uses a narrow-bandwidth interference filter for spectral selection and a cat’s-eye reflector for light feedback. To ensure long-term stable laser operation suitable for space applications, the connections among all the components are rigid and the design avoids any spring-loaded adjustment. The frequency of the first lateral rocking eigenmode is 2316 Hz. The ECDL operates near 698.45 nm, and it has a current-controlled tuning range over 40 GHz and a PZT-controlled tuning range of 3 GHz. The linewidth measured by the heterodyne beating between the ECDL and an ultra-stable laser with 1 Hz linewidth is about 180 kHz. At present, the ECDL has been applied to the principle prototype of the space ultra-stable laser system.

An approach is reported to acquire an optical frequency standard based on precise frequency locking between optical frequency comb and continuous wave. A stabilized erbium-fiber-based frequency comb is created by locking to the two-photon absorption resonance of rubidium atoms. An Erbium-doped distributed-feedback narrow linewidth lasers is presented with an actively stabilized all fiber Mach–Zehnder interferometer. With this structure, many lines of the optical frequency comb can make a contribution to the error signal. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is enhanced compared to traditional way which utilizes only one comb line. An acousto-optic modulator (AOM) is used to compensate the noise in fiber which is induced by environment. The relative frequency offset instability is 2 × 10 −13 at 1 s and 6 × 10 −15 at 1000 s. This stabilized system can be wisely used in optical communication at 1550 nm. The main advantage of this structure is the ability for long distance frequency transmission. Without dispersion, the stability and the robustness of the transmission is greater than the scheme only with the frequency comb. We transferred the signals along 10km optical fiber link with it. The relative frequency stability loss of the frequency signal is 1.1 × 10 −15 at 1 s and reaches 7.6 × 10 −19 at 1000 s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Using laser and arc power in equal parts, laser-arc hybrid welding processes are successfully adapted by the industry. This paper shows the stabilizing effects of diode lasers on short arc GMAW (gas metal arc welding) which deliver just a fraction of the supplied arc power. In a comprehensive comparison the stabilized and the sole GMAW processes are confronted and differences regarding process behavior and weld bead properties are pointed out. The tests were carried out with DC01 (1.0330) plates of 1 mm thickness deploying lasers using a mean laser intensity of 1,1 x104 W/cm². Adding this low amount of intensity provides stability to the weld process and results in weld beads of higher homogeneity. The process behavior is characterized by the transient current and voltage curves which are analyzed in regards to consistency and uniformity. Metallographic analysis is employed to compare the weld bead dimensions at different energy ratios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate a passive, material-based athermalization of all-fiber architectures consisting of cascaded multimode-interference (MMI) devices. Specifically, the athermal MMI filter used for in-line thermo-optic compensation consists of a no-core multimode fiber, which is spliced between two single-mode fibers, and is partly covered with a polymer coating. The design of the temperature-compensation unit is straightforward and its fabrication is simple. The applicability of our approach is experimentally verified by fabricating wavelength-locked MMI lasers with a temperature sensitivity lower than 1.0 pm/°C, which is several times smaller than that achieved with other fiber-optic devices and is comparable to that targeted in silicon photonics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a frequency stabilized laser at 2051 nm based on a versatile all-fibered stabilization setup. A modulation sideband locking technique is implemented to lock the laser at a controlled frequency detuning from the center of the CO R(30) transition envisaged for space-borne differential absorption lidar (DIAL) applications. This method relies on the use of a compact all-fibered gas reference cell that makes the setup robust and immune to mechanically induced optical misalignments. The gas cell is fabricated using a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber filled with pure CO at a low pressure of ~20 mbar and hermetically sealed at both ends by splices to silica fibers. Different configurations of this fibered cell have been developed and are presented. With this technique, frequency stabilities below 40 kHz at 1-s integration time and <100 kHz up to 1000-s averaging time were achieved for a laser detuning by around 1 GHz from the center of the CO transition. These stabilities are compliant with typical requirements for the reference seed source for a space CO DIAL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributed feedback laser is widely used as the pump beam and probe beam in atomic physical and quantum experiments. As the frequency stability is a vital characteristic to the laser diode in these experiments, a saturated absorption frequency stabilization method assisted with the function of current and frequency is proposed. The relationship between the current and frequency is acquired based on the genetic programming (GP) algorithm. To verify the feasibility of the method, the frequency stabilization system is comprised of two parts that are modeling the relation between the current and frequency by GP and processing the saturated absorption signal. The results of the frequency stabilization experiment proved that this method can not only narrow the frequency searching range near the atomic line center but also compensate for the phase delay between the saturated absorption peak and the zero crossing point of the differential error signal. The reduced phase delay increases the locking probability and makes the wavelength drift only 0.015 pm/h, which converted to frequency drift is 7 MHz/h after frequency locking on the Rb absorption line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two diode lasers at 698 nm are separately locked to two independent optical reference cavities with a finesse of about 128,000 by the Pound-Drever-Hall method. The more accurate coefficient between voltage and frequency of the error signal is measured, with which quantitative evaluation of the effect of many noises on the frequency stability can be made much more conveniently. A temperature-insensitive method is taken to reduce the effect of residual amplitude modulation on laser frequency stability. With an active fiber noise cancellation, the optical heterodyne beat between two independent lasers shows that the linewidth of one diode laser reaches 1 Hz. The fractional Allan deviation removed linear frequency shift less than 30 mHz/s is below 2.6 × 10-15 with 1- to 100-s average time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the effect of tunable filtered optical feedback on a commercial DFB laser edge coupled to a silicon photonic planar integrated circuit in which a tunable reflector has been implemented by means of a ring resonator-based add–drop multiplexer. Controlled optical feedback allows for fine-tuning of the laser oscillation frequency. Under certain conditions, it also allows suppression of bifurcation modes triggered by reflections occurring elsewhere on the chip. A semianalytical model describing laser dynamics under combined optical feedback from the input facet of the edge coupler and from the tunable on-chip reflector fits the measurements. Compensation of detrimental effects from reflections induced elsewhere on a transceiver chip may allow moving isolators downstream in future communications systems, facilitating direct hybrid laser integration in silicon photonic chips, provided a suitable feedback signal for a control system can be identified. Moreover, the optical frequency tuning at lower feedback levels can be used to form a rapidly tunable optical oscillator as part of an optical phase-locked loop, circumventing the problem of the thermal to free carrier effect crossover in the FM response of injection current-controlled semiconductor laser diodes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Optical frequency combs generated by quantum cascade lasers have recently been demonstrated in the mid and far infrared, but a detailed analysis of the possibility of a fine control of the emission to use them for high-resolution spectroscopy and metrology applications is still missing. In this manuscript the attempt of frequency stabilizing a mid-infrared quantum cascade laser comb (QCL-comb) against a metrological mid-infrared intracavity-difference-frequency-generated comb through a single phase-locking chain acting on the driving current is presented. Following a brief derivation, simple relations between the QCL-comb frequency parameters and optical quantities such as the refractive index have been found and used to observe how the locking affects the physics of the system. The conclusion is that the current locking essentially acts on the effective refractive index to reduce the offset fluctuations (common noise), but does not sensitively affect the group refractive index and the mode spacing. Nonetheless, the overall single QCL-comb tooth linewidth is reduced from 500 kHz down to values ranging from 1 to 23 kHz on a 40 ms time scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for highly performing and stable methods for mid-IR molecular sensing and metrology pushes towards the development of more and more compact and robust systems. Among the innovative solutions aimed at answering the need for stable mid-IR references are crystalline microresonators, which have recently shown excellent capabilities for frequency stabilization and linewidth narrowing of quantum cascade lasers with compact setups. In this work, we report on the first system for mid-IR high-resolution spectroscopy based on a quantum cascade laser locked to a CaF2 microresonator. Electronic locking narrows the laser linewidth by one order of magnitude and guarantees good stability over long timescales, allowing, at the same time, an easy way for finely tuning the laser frequency over the molecular absorption line. Improvements in terms of resolution and frequency stability of the source are demonstrated by direct sub-Doppler recording of a molecular line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narrow-linewidth lasers are key elements in optical metrology and spectroscopy. Spectral purity of these lasers determines accuracy of the measurements and quality of collected data. Solid state and fiber lasers are stabilized to relatively large and complex external optical cavities or narrow atomic and molecular transitions to improve their spectral purity. While this stabilization technique is rather generic, its complexity increases tremendously moving to longer wavelenghts, to the infrared (IR) range. Inherent increase of losses of optical materials at longer wavelengths hinders realization of compact, room temperature, high finesse IR cavities suitable for laser stabilization. In this paper, we report on demonstration of quantum cascade lasers stabilized to high-Q crystalline mid-IR microcavities. The lasers operating at room temperature in the 4.3-4.6 μm region have a linewidth approaching 10 kHz and are promising for on-chip mid-IR and IR spectrometers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate the short- and long-term stable operation of an all-polarization-maintained Fabry–Pérot cavity passively mode-locked fiber laser. The laser operates in an all-anomalous-dispersion solitonic regime. Laser stability is studied by a variety of measurements, which confirm the high stability of the laser in the temporal and spectral–both optical and electrical-domains. Pulse durations of 540 fs, period-relative time jitters of $\sim$0.015‰, and long-term uninterrumped operation with 0.4% variation (standard deviation) in the average output power are obtained. The highly stable operation of the laser oscillator was maintained after amplifying the laser output with a conventional EDFA. Pulse durations of $\sim$244 fs, period-relative time jitters of $\sim$0.019‰,  and an average output power of 20 mW were obtained after amplification, while maintaining the 100-dB signal-to-noise ratio of the laser oscillator measured at 500-Hz offset from the fundamental harmonic frequency. The theoretical validation of our experimental results is based on solutions of the Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation. We demonstrate that wavelength and z -position dependences of the active medium gain must be taken into account for an accurate correspondence with the experimental properties of the laser. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A proof-of-concept experiment for fiber-based broad-area laser stabilization is experimentally demonstrated using coupling optics and a 1-nm wide, 98% reflectivity fiber Bragg grating. The output spectrum of a 3-W, 100- \mu \textm wide, 2-mm long commercial broad-area laser was narrowed by more than $10\times $ to 0.26-nm full-width half-max. In addition, the system showed 7%–13% enhanced output power. The system also shows potential for slow-axis beam quality improvement in the desired operating regime. A pump delivery fiber scheme is proposed for integration of the diode feedback into a pump system package for enhanced-brightness fiber pumping. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We study theoretically and experimentally pulse fluctuations in a passively Q-switched laser caused by the thermal lens effect and design a special thermally insensitive cavity for an end-pumped passively Qswitched laser system with a composite crystal. We show experimentally that using a suitable cavity and maintaining the laser-system operation in the fundamental mode reduce the pulse fluctuations effectively. Under a pump power of 8 W, relative fluctuations of the pulse width and the repetition rate of this system are 2.3% and 3.5%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]