Flat soliton microcomb source

A new publication from Opto-Electronic Science; DOI  10.29026/oes.2023.230024   discusses flat soliton microcomb source.

 

Optical chip-related technology is the inevitable path to retain the validity of Moore's Law, which has become consensus of academia and industry, it can effectively solve the speed and power consumption problems of electronic chips. It is expected to subvert the future of intelligent computing and ultra-high speed optical communication. In recent years, an important technological breakthrough in silicon-based photonics focuses on the development of chip-based microcavity soliton optical frequency combs, which can generate uniformly spaced frequency combs through optical microcavities. Because of its advantages of high integration, wide spectrum and high repetition frequency, chip-based microcavity soliton light source has potential applications in large capacity communication, spectroscopy, microwave photonics, precision measurement and other fields. In general, the conversion efficiency of soliton optical frequency comb is often limited by the relevant parameters of the optical microcavity. Under a specific pump power, the output power of the microcavity single soliton optical frequency comb is often limited. The introduction of external optical amplification system will inevitably affect the signal-to-noise ratio. Therefore, the flat spectral profile of soliton optical frequency comb has become the pursuit of this field.

 

Recently, an innovative team led by Dr. Peng Xie from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore has made important progress in the field of multi-wavelength light sources on flat sheets. The research team developed an optical microcavity chip with flat, broad spectrum and near zero dispersion, and efficiently packaged the optical chip in the way of edge coupling (coupling loss is less than 1 dB). Based on the optical microcavity chip, the strong thermo-optical effect in the optical microcavity is overcome by the technical scheme of double pumping, and the multi-wavelength light source with flat spectral output is realized. Through the feedback control system, the multi-wavelength soliton source system can work stably for more than 8 hours.

 

The spectral output of the light source is approximately trapezoidal, the repetition frequency is about 190 GHz, the flat spectrum covers 1470-1670 nm, the flatness is about 2.2 dBm (standard deviation), and the flat spectral range occupies 70% of the entire spectral range, covering the S+C+L band. The research results can be used in high-capacity optical interconnection systems and high-dimensional optical computing systems. For example, in the large-capacity communication demonstration system based on microcavity soliton comb source, the frequency comb group with large energy difference faces the problem of low SNR, while the soliton source with flat spectral output can effectively overcome this problem and help improve the SNR in parallel optical information processing, which has important engineering significance.

 

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Dr. Peng Xie, a research scientist at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, is the leader of the international innovation team of Integrated optical chips and photonic computing. He was jointly trained by University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT. He has been engaged in photonic integrated chips, on-chip/on-chip photonic network technology, multi-dimensional/high-dimensional optical computing technology, and large-capacity information optical interconnection technology in Oxford University and Nanyang Technological University. He has published more than 20 academic papers in academic journals such as Nano-Micro Letters, Advanced Materials, and Opto-Electronic Science. Some core technologies have been transformed to provide key technical support for multiple user units. Invited to serve as a young editorial board member of international academic journal Ultrafast Science, guest editor of Frontiers in Physics, and reviewer of more than 20 academic journals such as Light: Science & Applications and eLight; He has been invited to give more than 10 invited presentations at Harvard University, Tsinghua University and other universities. He has made more than 20 invited reports at the International Academic Conference on optical computing/Optical Communication, and served as the committee member and chairman of the special program of optical computing and intelligent optical information processing technology for several times.

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Opto-Electronic Science (OES) is a peer-reviewed, open access, interdisciplinary and international journal published by The Institute of Optics and Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences as a sister journal of Opto-Electronic Advances (OEA, IF=9.682). OES is dedicated to providing a professional platform to promote academic exchange and accelerate innovation. OES publishes articles, reviews, and letters of the fundamental breakthroughs in basic science of optics and optoelectronics.

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Wang XY, Qiu XK, Liu ML, Liu F, Li MM et al. Flat soliton microcomb source. Opto-Electron Sci 2, 230024 (2023). doi: 10.29026/oes.2023.230024 

 

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