Generation of tunable, high repetition rate optical frequency combs using on-chip silicon modulators

We experimentally demonstrate tunable, highly-stable frequency combs with high repetition-rates using a single, charge injection based silicon PN modulator. In this work, we demonstrate combs in the C-band with over 8 lines in a 20-dB bandwidth. We demonstrate continuous tuning of the center frequency in the C-band and tuning of the repetition-rate from 7.5GHz to 12.5GHz. We also demonstrate through simulations the potential for bandwidth scaling using an optimized silicon PIN modulator. We find that, the time varying free carrier absorption due to carrier injection, an undesirable effect in data modulators, assists here in enhancing flatness in the generated combs.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

Generation of tunable, high repetition rate frequency combs with equalized spectra using carrier injection based silicon modulators

High repetition-rate frequency combs with tunable repetition rate and carrier frequency are extensively used in areas like Optical communications, Microwave Photonics and Metrology. A common technique for their generation is strong phase modulation of a CW-laser. This is commonly implemented using Lithium-Niobate based modulators. With phase modulation alone, the combs have poor spectral flatness and significant number of missing lines. To overcome this, a complex cascade of multiple intensity and phase modulators are used. A comb generator on Silicon based on these principles is desirable to enable on-chip integration with other functionalities while reducing power consumption and footprint. In this work, we analyse frequency comb generation in carrier injection based Silicon modulators. We observe an interesting effect in these comb generators. Enhanced absorption accompanying carrier injection, an undesirable effect in data modulators, shapes the amplitude here to enable high quality combs from a single modulator. Thus, along with reduced power consumption to generate a specific number of lines, the complexity has also been significantly reduced. We use a drift-diffusion solver and mode solver (Silvaco TCAD) along with Soref-Bennett relations to calculate the variations in refractive indices and absorption of an optimized Silicon PIN - waveguide modulator driven by an unbiased high frequency (10 Ghz) voltage signal. Our simulations demonstrate that with a device length of 1 cm, a driving voltage of 2V and minor shaping with a passive ring-resonator filter, we obtain 37 lines with a flatness better than 5-dB across the band and power consumption an order of magnitude smaller than Lithium-Niobate modulators

Optical frequency comb based on nonlinear spectral broadening of a phase modulated comb source driven by dual offset locked carriers

We demonstrate a versatile technique to generate a broadband optical frequency comb source in the C-band. This is accomplished by nonlinear spectral broadening of a phase modulated comb source driven by dual frequency offset locked carriers. The locking is achieved by setting up a heterodyne optical frequency locked loop to lock two phase modulated electro-optic 25 GHz frequency combs sourced from individual seed carriers offset by 100 GHz, to within 6.7 MHz of each other. We realize spectral broadening in highly nonlinear fiber after suitable amplification to obtain an equalized, nonlinearly broadened frequency comb. We obtain � 86 lines in a 20 dB band spanning over 2 THz

Frequency Offset Locked, Dual Carrier Excitation of Phase modulated, Electro-optic Frequency Combs for Bandwidth Scaling and Nonlinear Spectral Broadening

DWDM with/without superchannel based photonic networks require the use of optical carriers with equalised amplitudes and frequency stabilization of adjacent carriers to realise reliable high bandwidth optical communication systems with high spectral efficiency and long reach. Cascading of electro-optic (EO) modulators is a versatile method for generating tuneable, high repetition rate frequency combs which can be used as sources for the carriers. However, the number of lines produced with this technique is limited by the number of phase modulators. Nonlinear spectral broadening is an attractive option for bandwidth scaling; however, bandwidth scaling of single carrier combs through four wave mixing suffers from unequal comb lines or power limitations due to Brillouin scattering. A simpler technique to increase the number of comb lines would involve using multicarrier excitations for comb generation which would result in a proportional increase in the comb lines. Further, dual-carrier excitation enables an excellent temporal profile for nonlinear spectral broadening. However, since the two carriers have uncorrelated drifts, the resultant frequency combs would be unsuitable for most applications. This issue can be overcome by frequency offset locking the two lasers. Here, we demonstrate frequency offset locking (MHz accuracy) of two diode lasers spaced by 100GHz by using an optical phase locked loop which locks one laser to a RF harmonic of the other. This allows for the generation of frequency comb lines locked to each other even post nonlinear broadening. Using this technique, we demonstrate a 25GHz frequency comb with >90 lines (2THz) in the C-band