Stabilized chip-scale Kerr frequency comb via a high-Q reference photonic microresonator

Probing 10 μK stability and residual drifts in the cross-polarized dual-mode stabilization of single-crystal ultrahigh-Q optical resonators

The thermal stability of monolithic optical microresonators is essential for many mesoscopic photonic applications such as ultrastable laser oscillators, photonic microwave clocks, and precision navigation and sensing. Their fundamental performance is largely bounded by thermal instability. Sensitive thermal monitoring can be achieved by utilizing cross-polarized dual-mode beat frequency metrology, determined by the polarization-dependent thermorefractivity of a single-crystal microresonator, wherein the heterodyne radio-frequency beat pins down the optical mode volume temperature for precision stabilization. Here, we investigate the correlation between the dual-mode beat frequency and the resonator temperature with time and the associated spectral noise of the dual-mode beat frequency in a single-crystal ultrahigh-Q MgF₂ resonator to illustrate that dual-mode frequency metrology can potentially be utilized for resonator temperature stabilization reaching the fundamental thermal noise limit in a realistic system. We show a resonator long-term temperature stability of 8.53 μK after stabilization and unveil various sources that hinder the stability from reaching sub-μK in the current system, an important step towards compact precision navigation, sensing, and frequency reference architectures.

Microresonator stabilized 2 μm distributed-feedback GaSb-based diode laser

We report on the stabilization of a high-power distributed feedback (DFB) semiconductor laser operating at 2.05 μm wavelength, using a crystalline whispering gallery mode microresonator. The laser's frequency noise is measured to be below 100  Hz/Hz^1/2 at Fourier frequencies ranging from 10 Hz to 1 MHz. The instantaneous linewidth of the laser is improved by four orders of magnitude compared with the free-running DFB laser, and is measured to be 15 Hz at 0.1 ms measurement time. The integral linewidth approaches 100 Hz. The stabilized DFB laser is integrated with a polarization maintaining output fiber and an integrated optical isolator.