Towards On-Chip Self-Referenced Frequency-Comb Sources Based on Semiconductor Mode-Locked Lasers.

Miniaturization of frequency-comb sources could open a host of potential applications in spectroscopy, biomedical monitoring, astronomy, microwave signal generation, and distribution of precise time or frequency across networks. This review article places emphasis on an architecture with a semiconductor mode-locked laser at the heart of the system and subsequent supercontinuum generation and carrier-envelope offset detection and stabilization in nonlinear integrated optics

An XUV-FEL amplifier seeded using high harmonic generation

A detailed design of a free electron laser ( FEL) amplifier operating in the extreme ultra violet ( XUV) and seeded directly by a high harmonic source is presented. The design is part of the 4th generation light source ( 4GLS) facility proposed for the Daresbury Laboratory in the UK which will offer users a suite of high brightness synchronised sources from THz frequencies into the XUV. The XUV-FEL will generate photons with tunable energies from 8 to 100 eV at giga-watt peak power levels in near Fourier-transform limited pulses of variable polarisation. The designs of the high harmonic generation ( HHG) seeding, FEL amplifier and synchronising systems are presented. Numerical simulations quantify the FEL output characteristics

Microwave techniques and applications for semiconductor quantum dot mode-locked lasers

Semiconductor mode-locked lasers (MLLs) are important as compact and cost-effective sources of picosecond or sub-picosecond optical pulses with moderate peak powers. They have potential use in various fields including optical interconnects for clock distribution at an inter-chip/intra-chip level as well as high bit-rate optical time division multiplexing (OTDM), diverse waveform generation, and microwave signal generation. However, there are still several challenges to conquer for engineering applications. Semiconductor MLLs sources have generally not been able to match the noise performance and pulse quality of the best solid-state mode-locked lasers. For improving the characteristics of semiconductor mode-locked lasers, research on both the material/device design and stabilization mechanism is necessary. In this dissertation, by extending the net-gain modulation phasor approach based on a microwave photonics perspective, a convenient, yet powerful analytical model is derived and experimentally verified for the cavity design of semiconductor two-section passive MLLs. This model will also be useful in designing the next generation quantum dot (QD) MLL capable of stable operation from 20°C to 100°C for optical interconnects applications. The compact optical generation of microwave signals using a monolithic passive QD MLL is investigated. Relevant equations for the efficient conversion of electrical to optical to electrical (EOE) energy are derived and the device principles are described. In order to verify the function of a QD MLL as an RF signal generator, the integration with a rectangular patch antenna system is also studied. Furthermore, combined with the reconfigurable function, the multi-section QD MLL will be a promising candidate of the compact, efficient RF signal source in wireless, beam steering, and satellite communication applications. The noise performance is a key element for semiconductor MLLs in OTDM communications. The external stabilization methods to improve the timing stability in passive MLLs have been studied and an all-microwave measurement technique has also been developed to determine the pulse-to-pulse rms timing jitter. Compared to the conventional optical cross-correlation technique, the new method provides an alternative and simple approach to characterize the timing jitter in a passive MLL. The average pulse-to-pulse rms timing jitter is reduced to 32 fs/cycle under external optical feedback stabilization

Multi-Loop-Ring-Oscillator Design and Analysis for Sub-Micron CMOS

Ring oscillators provide a central role in timing circuits for today?s mobile devices and desktop computers. Increased integration in these devices exacerbates switching noise on the supply, necessitating improved supply resilience. Furthermore, reduced voltage headroom in submicron technologies limits the number of stacked transistors available in a delay cell. Hence, conventional single-loop oscillators offer relatively few design options to achieve desired specifications, such as supply rejection. Existing state-of-the-art supply-rejection- enhancement methods include actively regulating the supply with an LDO, employing a fully differential or current-starved delay cell, using a hi-Z voltage-to-current converter, or compensating/calibrating the delay cell. Multiloop ring oscillators (MROs) offer an additional solution because by employing a more complex ring-connection structure and associated delay cell, the designer obtains an additional degree of freedom to meet the desired specifications. Designing these more complex multiloop structures to start reliably and achieve the desired performance requires a systematic analysis procedure, which we attack on two fronts: (1) a generalized delay-cell viewpoint of the MRO structure to assist in both analysis and circuit layout, and (2) a survey of phase-noise analysis to provide a bank of methods to analyze MRO phase noise. We distill the salient phase-noise-analysis concepts/key equations previously developed to facilitate MRO and other non-conventional oscillator analysis. Furthermore, our proposed analysis framework demonstrates that all these methods boil down to obtaining three things: (1) noise modulation function (NMF), (2) noise transfer function (NTF), and (3) current-controlled-oscillator gain (KICO). As a case study, we detail the design, analysis, and measurement of a proposed multiloop ring oscillator structure that provides improved power-supply isolation (more than 20dB increase in supply rejection over a conventional-oscillator control case fabricated on the same test chip). Applying our general multi-loop-oscillator framework to this proposed MRO circuit leads both to design-oriented expressions for the oscillation frequency and supply rejection as well as to an efficient layout technique facilitating cross-coupling for improved quadrature accuracy and systematic, substantially simplified layout effort

Radio frequency and terahertz signals generated by passively mode-locked semiconductor lasers

There are several different approaches to generating periodic signals using semiconductor lasers, for example: Q-switching, gain switching or mode-locking schemes. In general the active or passive mode-locking techniques require the use of a modulator or a saturable absorber in order to achieve the phase synchronisation. The laser diodes studied in this thesis, are demonstrated to operate in the mode-locked regime, while not requiring any direct or external modulation, nor the saturable absorbtion element in order to achieve the phase synchronisation. It has been demonstrated previously, that in a multimode semiconductor laser, the third order nonlinearities of a gain medium resulting in the four-wave-mixing effects, are responsible for the phase synchronisation and lead to phase locking. The repetition rate of the generated signal is fixed by the free-spectral range of the longitudinal spectrum. Therefore, with a passively mode-locked laser (PMLL) it is possible to cover a wide range of frequencies from the Radio-Frequency (RF) to the TeraHertz (THz) domain. Radio frequency signals generated by semiconductor lasers have many applications in optical communications, such as radio-over-fibre, or all-optical clock extraction. Terahertz signals are the focus of many research bodies nowadays, due to their interaction with matter. They have potential applications in areas like: industry, pharmacy, security (military), telecommunication and medicine. With continuous improvement of materials processing and technology, new ways of generation and detection of such types of signals have appeared. The key advantage of the optical RF or THz generation is that this type of device is direct current biased and operates at room temperature. In this thesis, a comprehensive study of various PMLLs, from distributed Bragg reflector bulk laser to quantum dashed Fabry-Perot lasers is given, demonstrating the origin of the phase synchronisation in these structures and some applications for these lasers such as all-optical clock recovery or THz signal generation