WO2018149508A1 - Procédé de génération automatique et programmable de signaux dans les régions de radiofréquences, d'ondes millimétriques et de fréquences térahertz à faible bruit de phase, large gamme d'accord de fréquences, grande largeur de bande de modulation et à résolution haute fréquence - Google Patents

Procédé de génération automatique et programmable de signaux dans les régions de radiofréquences, d'ondes millimétriques et de fréquences térahertz à faible bruit de phase, large gamme d'accord de fréquences, grande largeur de bande de modulation et à résolution haute fréquence Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2018149508A1
WO2018149508A1 PCT/EP2017/053773 EP2017053773W WO2018149508A1 WO 2018149508 A1 WO2018149508 A1 WO 2018149508A1 EP 2017053773 W EP2017053773 W EP 2017053773W WO 2018149508 A1 WO2018149508 A1 WO 2018149508A1
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
laser
slave laser
frequency
voltage
optical
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/EP2017/053773
Other languages
English (en)
Inventor
Rubén CRIADO SERRANO
Jesús PALACÍ LÓPEZ
Cristina DE DIOS FERNÁNDEZ
Pablo ACEDO
Original Assignee
Luz Wavelabs, S.L.
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Luz Wavelabs, S.L. filed Critical Luz Wavelabs, S.L.
Priority to PCT/EP2017/053773 priority Critical patent/WO2018149508A1/fr
Publication of WO2018149508A1 publication Critical patent/WO2018149508A1/fr

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S5/00—Semiconductor lasers
    • H01S5/40—Arrangement of two or more semiconductor lasers, not provided for in groups H01S5/02 - H01S5/30
    • H01S5/4006—Injection locking
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S5/00—Semiconductor lasers
    • H01S5/06—Arrangements for controlling the laser output parameters, e.g. by operating on the active medium
    • H01S5/068—Stabilisation of laser output parameters
    • H01S5/06808—Stabilisation of laser output parameters by monitoring the electrical laser parameters, e.g. voltage or current
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S5/00—Semiconductor lasers
    • H01S5/06—Arrangements for controlling the laser output parameters, e.g. by operating on the active medium
    • H01S5/068—Stabilisation of laser output parameters
    • H01S5/06812—Stabilisation of laser output parameters by monitoring or fixing the threshold current or other specific points of the L-I or V-I characteristics
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
    • H03B—GENERATION OF OSCILLATIONS, DIRECTLY OR BY FREQUENCY-CHANGING, BY CIRCUITS EMPLOYING ACTIVE ELEMENTS WHICH OPERATE IN A NON-SWITCHING MANNER; GENERATION OF NOISE BY SUCH CIRCUITS
    • H03B17/00—Generation of oscillations using radiation source and detector, e.g. with interposed variable obturator
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01S—DEVICES USING THE PROCESS OF LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISSION OF RADIATION [LASER] TO AMPLIFY OR GENERATE LIGHT; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN WAVE RANGES OTHER THAN OPTICAL
    • H01S5/00—Semiconductor lasers
    • H01S5/06—Arrangements for controlling the laser output parameters, e.g. by operating on the active medium
    • H01S5/062—Arrangements for controlling the laser output parameters, e.g. by operating on the active medium by varying the potential of the electrodes
    • H01S5/06226—Modulation at ultra-high frequencies
    • H01S5/0623—Modulation at ultra-high frequencies using the beating between two closely spaced optical frequencies, i.e. heterodyne mixing

Definitions

  • the invention hereby disclosed belongs to the field of electromagnetic signal generators; more precisely in the frequency regions covering radiofrequency, microwave, millimeter wave and Terahertz ranges.
  • the object of the invention allows, amongst others, a method for automatic and programmable signal generation from radiofrequency up to Terahertz frequencies, simultaneously providing low phase noise, high modulation bandwidth, wide frequency range and high frequency resolution.
  • Optical injection has many applications, being remarkable those aimed to signal processing, wavelength stabilization and metrology.
  • US6359913B1 discloses an injection locking system for lasers; in particular, a signal from a master laser is phase modulated and injected into a slave laser.
  • the phase difference ⁇ is maintained at zero by means of a phase locked loop.
  • the frequency drift is compensated by maintaining the frequency within a predetermined locking range.
  • automating optical injection for example using the slave laser optical output power, it is given that it decreases when the injection takes place.
  • a photodiode may be used to monitor the power output, thus requiring additional equipment.
  • the resolution provided is not accurate, hence when little power is injected it is not possible to differentiate neither between any injection and non-injection situations.
  • the voltage between electrodes of the slave laser is reduced when the injection is produced and there are two main forms of measuring it.
  • either the master or the slave laser should be alternatively turned on and off in order to make the detection balanced; or its current should be modulated varying the phase of the radiation emitted by the slave laser.
  • These modulations limit the applicability of the technique, since it does not allow the slave laser to operate in a stable form.
  • additional equipment may be required to produce these modulations. This prevents these techniques to be feasible in applications such as wireless communications, for example, or any other application that requires from the laser to be switched on all the time or having its phase stable.
  • Photonic methods for signal generation in this frequency ranges are based on optical down-coversion (two optical modes spaced by the desired frequency are down-converted by means of a photomixing or photodetection). These methods are complementary to electronic approaches, in the sense that they provide high modulation bandwidth, wide frequency tuning range but poor performance in terms of frequency resolution and phase noise. Being the phase noise characteristics a requirement for some applications like communications or instrumentation, photonic approaches are not commonly used for these applications.
  • optical frequency comb can be generated in a variety of ways and can provide different features in terms of optical span, frequency spacing and frequency spacing tunability, optical flatness whereas the optical modes selection stages can be based on optical filtering or optical injection locking.
  • a frequency synthesizer for generating wideband signals for zero Hz up to frequencies in the millimeter wave band
  • said frequency synthesizer provides the ability for arbitrarily tine increments in output frequency.
  • the synthesizer has an optical comb generator that provides a set of reference signals at predetermined intervals which are fed to two or more laser devices, at least one of which is a frequency selection and translation device capable of selecting a particular output line from the comb generator and shifting it by some desired frequency. The outputs front the laser devices are then combined and detected using a photodetector.
  • WO2017010603 discloses a device and a method based on PDH (Pound Drever Hall technique) for performing stabilization of the overall frequency of an optical comb of a femtosecond laser by using an optical mode directly extracted from the optical comb and, more specifically.
  • PDH Pulund Drever Hall technique
  • This document is mainly aimed to a device and a method for performing stabilization of the overall frequency of an optical comb of a femtosecond laser by using an optical mode directly extracted from the optical comb, in which the overall frequency of an optical comb of a femtosecond laser is stabilized by using an optical mode directly extracted from the optical comb and monochromatic laser and pulse having excellent frequency stability and linewidth are generated from the stabilized optical comb.
  • the device disclosed comprises a femtosecond laser light source comprising in turn a length adjustment element and any one selected from a pump laser and an acousto-optic modulator and is for outputting a femtosecond laser optical comb, an optical mode extraction unit for extracting, from the femtosecond laser optical comb, a first optical mode and a second optical mode having frequencies that are different from each other, an injection-locking unit for generating first monochromatic light by injection-locking the first optical mode to a first cascade laser and for generating second monochromatic light by injection-locking the second optical mode to a second cascade laser and a control unit comprising for controlling the length adjustment element by means of generating a first optical comb control signal on the basis of a resonant frequency of the high sharpness- cavity and the first monochromatic light and for controlling the pump laser or the acousto- optic modulator, provided in the femtosecond laser light source, by means of generating a second optical comb control
  • US5379309 is based on heterodyne techniques and discloses a signal generator including a mode-locked laser having multiple optical modes characterized by respective mode frequencies, plural tuned lasers, each of the plural tuned lasers being tuned to a respective optical frequency corresponding to respective ones of the mode frequencies, wherein a difference in the optical frequencies of different ones of the plural tuned lasers corresponds to a desired output frequency, apparatus for injection-locking the plural tuned lasers to corresponding ones of the plural optical modes of the mode-locked laser, and apparatus for combining the optical outputs of the plural tuned lasers whereby to generate at least an output signal having an output frequency equal to the difference in the optical frequencies of different ones of the plural tuned lasers.
  • the plural optical modes of the mode-locked laser span a frequency band at least hundreds of GHz wide, and the output frequency is in a band encompassing millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths.
  • the plural tuned lasers include a pair of C.W. lasers each narrowly tuned to a respective optical frequency corresponding to a frequency difference therebetween equal to the output frequency. Injection-locking is accomplished by coupling optical radiation from an optical cavity of the mode-locked laser to an optical cavity of each one of the plural tuned lasers.
  • An up-converter modulates the optical output of one of the plural tuned lasers with the baseband signal prior its being combined by the apparatus for combining with an electrooptical phase modulator having an optical input connected to the one tuned laser and an optical output connected to the combining apparatus and an electrical control input connected to receive the baseband signal.
  • the object of the invention is aimed to a method for signal generation in the RF, mm-wave and terahertz domains, based on optoelectronic techniques, able to simultaneously achieve low-phase noise, wide frequency range, high modulation bandwidth and high frequency resolution.
  • the novelty of our invention allows a compact system, and especially totally automatic and programmable operation.
  • optical injection is performed using two lasers: a master laser and a slave laser.
  • the technique provided mainly consists of introducing (or injecting) the optical signal (or emitted light) of the master laser into the slave laser.
  • the slave laser will emit at exactly the same frequency as the master laser emits (instead of the one it would emit on its own if there was no injection), also inheriting its physical properties, such as noise: this process is known as optical injection locking (OIL), a process by which a master laser is injected into a slave.
  • OIL optical injection locking
  • Optical injection locking is mainly a process by which a master laser is injected into a slave: If the slave is tuned within the locking range (which depends on the power injected and is between hundreds of MHz and a few GHz), a frequency identical to the master of the slave emerge, filtering the rest of the slave spectrum. In addition, if it stays at a fixed point within that blocking range, the phase does not change either.
  • the method of the invention uses voltage measurements between anode and cathode so it is possible to extract a bimodal signal that allows knowing the locking range and a ramp with the variation of the phase.
  • This signal of a magnitude much smaller than the offset signal, is differentiated with respect to previous samples in order to monitor its variability.
  • This method is not affected by the offset value, which is especially relevant when the laser is tuned in current and not in temperature. It is also immune to fluctuations in the offset value due to temperature changes or long term degradation of the laser. That signal is the basis for putting the lasers in place at all times, and also calibrate that information as the system works to keep it updated at all times.
  • the method of the invention may be implemented in a system like a high bandwidth signal generator especially adapted and ranging from MHz to THz and based on RF-photonic hybrid technology.
  • Two optical modes are extracted from an optical comb to be detected in a photo-mixer or photodiode and generate the desired frequency which will be equal to the spacing between the modes, these optical modes are filtered and amplified in one step using optical injection locking techniques.
  • the optical comb may be tunable in repetition frequency, so the selection of different optical lines (coarse tuning) together with the change of the repetition frequency (fine tuning) results in the possibility of continuously tuning the entire band of Interest with high frequency resolution.
  • Figure 1 Depicts a flowchart of the method of the invention.
  • FIGS. 2a -2d Show respective diagrams depicting the injection process and the voltage difference and determination of the threshold.
  • a slave laser which is used to carry out the OIL process (for example a set of temperature and current), is turned on; then a reference or master laser, which is another laser, is also turned on injecting its light into the slave laser as seen in figure 2a. Voltages in the electrodes of the slave laser are measured and said value/s is/are kept. By sweeping some parameters of the operating conditions of the slave laser, usually current and/or temperature of the slave laser, changes in the emission frequency are generated, which will get either closer or further from the master laser's emission frequency as seen in figure 2b.
  • the voltage in the electrodes is measured every single time that at least one of any one of the parameters of the operating conditions of the slave laser is modified -as seen in figure 2c- said voltage is expected to drop once the OIL process occurs (see figure 2c), namely when the frequency of the of the slave laser is close to that of the master laser and it locks into it copying its exact properties.
  • this drop is so very small that only variances detected in the voltage, but not its average value, provide the resolution required to detect the injection point; to do so, previous voltage value/s is/are respectively subtracted from actual one voltage value/s until the sweep is over.
  • the calculation is based on the variance of the voltage and comprises differentiating consecutive voltage values when sweeping parameters related to operating conditions of the slave laser.
  • Deviations in the electrodes voltage are tracked to keep it injected, using a threshold which may be defined from previous variance measurements.
  • the threshold value may be defined by turning on and off the master laser and calculating a differential voltage change around an optimum injection point, generating a bi-pulse response whose optimum injection point falls right in the middle.

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  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Condensed Matter Physics & Semiconductors (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Electromagnetism (AREA)
  • Optics & Photonics (AREA)
  • Lasers (AREA)

Abstract

L'invention concerne un procédé de génération automatique de signaux dans les régions de radiofréquences, d'ondes millimétriques et de fréquences térahertz à faible bruit de phase, large gamme d'accord de fréquences, grande largeur de bande de modulation et à résolution haute fréquence. Le procédé selon l'invention est associé à des techniques de verrouillage par injection optique (OIL) et permet une injection correcte de lasers, d'un laser esclave et d'un laser maître, par une détermination du point d'injection le plus approprié qui est défini à partir de mesures et de calculs sur la base de la surveillance de valeurs de tension dans les électrodes du laser esclave et du balayage de paramètres associés aux conditions de fonctionnement du laser esclave. Le procédé selon l'invention fournit ainsi une génération automatique et programmable de signaux à partir de radiofréquences jusqu'à des fréquences térahertz, fournissant simultanément un faible bruit de phase, une grande largeur de bande de modulation, une large gamme de fréquences et une résolution haute fréquence.
PCT/EP2017/053773 2017-02-20 2017-02-20 Procédé de génération automatique et programmable de signaux dans les régions de radiofréquences, d'ondes millimétriques et de fréquences térahertz à faible bruit de phase, large gamme d'accord de fréquences, grande largeur de bande de modulation et à résolution haute fréquence WO2018149508A1 (fr)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
PCT/EP2017/053773 WO2018149508A1 (fr) 2017-02-20 2017-02-20 Procédé de génération automatique et programmable de signaux dans les régions de radiofréquences, d'ondes millimétriques et de fréquences térahertz à faible bruit de phase, large gamme d'accord de fréquences, grande largeur de bande de modulation et à résolution haute fréquence

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
PCT/EP2017/053773 WO2018149508A1 (fr) 2017-02-20 2017-02-20 Procédé de génération automatique et programmable de signaux dans les régions de radiofréquences, d'ondes millimétriques et de fréquences térahertz à faible bruit de phase, large gamme d'accord de fréquences, grande largeur de bande de modulation et à résolution haute fréquence

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Citations (7)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4907234A (en) * 1989-05-04 1990-03-06 The United States Of America As Represented By The Secretary Of The Navy Monolithic laser diode structure for microwave generation
US5379309A (en) 1993-08-16 1995-01-03 California Institute Of Technology High frequency source having heterodyned laser oscillators injection-locked to a mode-locked laser
US6359913B1 (en) 1999-08-13 2002-03-19 Trw Inc. Stabilization of injection locking of CW lasers
WO2002033818A2 (fr) 2000-10-19 2002-04-25 Qinetiq Limited Synthetiseur de frequence
WO2002099939A2 (fr) * 2001-06-07 2002-12-12 University College London Synthetiseur de frequence optique
WO2008116014A2 (fr) * 2007-03-19 2008-09-25 The Regents Of The University Of California Émetteurs optiques à vitesse élevée utilisant des lasers optiquement verrouillés par injection en cascade
WO2017010603A1 (fr) 2015-07-15 2017-01-19 한국과학기술원 Dispositif et procédé pour effectuer la stabilisation de la fréquence globale d'un peigne optique d'un laser femtoseconde en utilisant un mode optique directement extrait du peigne optique

Patent Citations (7)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4907234A (en) * 1989-05-04 1990-03-06 The United States Of America As Represented By The Secretary Of The Navy Monolithic laser diode structure for microwave generation
US5379309A (en) 1993-08-16 1995-01-03 California Institute Of Technology High frequency source having heterodyned laser oscillators injection-locked to a mode-locked laser
US6359913B1 (en) 1999-08-13 2002-03-19 Trw Inc. Stabilization of injection locking of CW lasers
WO2002033818A2 (fr) 2000-10-19 2002-04-25 Qinetiq Limited Synthetiseur de frequence
WO2002099939A2 (fr) * 2001-06-07 2002-12-12 University College London Synthetiseur de frequence optique
WO2008116014A2 (fr) * 2007-03-19 2008-09-25 The Regents Of The University Of California Émetteurs optiques à vitesse élevée utilisant des lasers optiquement verrouillés par injection en cascade
WO2017010603A1 (fr) 2015-07-15 2017-01-19 한국과학기술원 Dispositif et procédé pour effectuer la stabilisation de la fréquence globale d'un peigne optique d'un laser femtoseconde en utilisant un mode optique directement extrait du peigne optique

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