Monolithic optical resonator for ultrastable laser and photonic millimeter-wave synthesis

Wei Zhang; Eric Kittlaus; Anatoliy Savchenkov; Vladimir Iltchenko; Lin Yi; Scott B. Papp; Andrey Matsko

doi:10.1038/s42005-024-01660-3

journal article Open Access Jun 04, 2024

Monolithic optical resonator for ultrastable laser and photonic millimeter-wave synthesis

Wei Zhang

Eric Kittlaus Anatoliy Savchenkov Vladimir Iltchenko Lin Yi Scott B. Papp

Andrey Matsko

Communications Physics Vol. 7 No. 1 · Springer Science and Business Media LLC

View at Publisher Save 10.1038/s42005-024-01660-3

Abstract

AbstractOptical resonators are indispensable tools in optical metrology that usually benefit from an evacuated and highly-isolated environment to achieve peak performance. Even in the more sophisticated design of Fabry-Perot (FP) cavities, the material choice limits the achievable quality factors. For this reason, monolithic resonators are emerging as promising alternative to traditional designs, but their design is still at preliminary stage and far from being optimized. Here, we demonstrate a monolithic FP resonator with 4.5 cm3 volume and 2 × 105 finesse. In the ambient environment, we achieve 18 Hz integrated laser linewidth and 7 × 10−14 frequency stability measured from 0.08 s to 0.3 s averaging time, the highest spectral purity and stability demonstrated to date in the context of monolithic reference resonators. By locking two separate lasers to distinct modes of the same resonator, a 96 GHz microwave signals is generated with phase noise -100 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz frequency offset, achieving orders of magnitude improvement in the approach of photonic heterodyne synthesis. The compact monolithic FP resonator is promising for applications in spectrally-pure, high-frequency microwave photonic references as well as optical clocks and other metrological devices. ©2024. All rights reserved.

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Details

Published: Jun 04, 2024
Vol/Issue: 7(1)
License: View

Authors

W

Wei Zhang

Hebei Agricultural University

Funding

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Award: 80NM0018D0004

Cite This Article

Wei Zhang, Eric Kittlaus, Anatoliy Savchenkov, et al. (2024). Monolithic optical resonator for ultrastable laser and photonic millimeter-wave synthesis. Communications Physics, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-024-01660-3

Monolithic optical resonator for ultrastable laser and photonic millimeter-wave synthesis

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