We demonstrate new technique for generation of programmable-pitch, wideband frequency combs with low phase noise. The comb generation was achieved using cavity-less, multistage mixer driven by two tunable continuous-wave pump seeds. The approach relies on phase-correlated continuous-wave pumps in order to cancel spectral linewidth broadening inherent to parametric comb generation. Parametric combs with over 200-nm bandwidth were obtained and characterized with respect to phase noise scaling to demonstrate linewidth preservation over 100 generated tones.

© 2012 OSA

1. J. L. Hall, “Optical frequency measurement: 40 years of technology revolutions,” IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron.6(6), 1136–1144 (2000). [CrossRef]
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34. R. Slavík, F. Parmigiani, J. Kakande, C. Lundström, M. Sjödin, P. A. Andrekson, R. Weerasuriya, S. Sygletos, A. D. Ellis, L. Grüner-Nielsen, D. Jakobsen, S. Herstrøm, R. Phelan, J. O'Gorman, A. Bogris, D. Syvridis, S. Dasgupta, P. Petropoulos, and D. J. Richardson, “All-optical phase and amplitude regenerator for next-generation telecommunications systems,” Nat. Photonics4(10), 690–695 (2010). [CrossRef]
35. S. L. I. Olsson, B. Corcoran, C. Lundström, E. Tipsuwannakul, S. Sygletos, A. D. Ellis, Z. Tong, M. Karlsson, and P. A. Andrekson, “Optical injection-locking-based pump recovery for phase-sensitively amplified links,” in Optical Fiber Communications Conference (OFC), paper OW3C (2012).
36. R. Slavík, F. Parmigiani, L. Grüner-Nielsen, D. Jakobsen, S. Herstrøm, P. Petropoulos, and D. J. Richardson, “Stable and efficient generation of high repetition rate (>160 GHz) subpicosecond optical pulses,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett.23(9), 540–542 (2011). [CrossRef]
37. R. Lang, “Injection locking properties of a semiconductor laser,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron.18(6), 976–983 (1982). [CrossRef]
38. T. Okoshi, K. Kikuchi, and A. Nakayama, “Novel method for high resolution measurement of laser output spectrum,” Electron. Lett.16(16), 630–631 (1980). [CrossRef]
39. F. Kéfélian, R. Gabet, and P. Gallion, “Characteristics of the phase noise correlation of injection locked lasers for RF signal generation and transmission,” Opt. Quantum Electron.38(4-6), 467–478 (2006). [CrossRef]

Electron. Lett.

• T. Okoshi, K. Kikuchi, and A. Nakayama, “Novel method for high resolution measurement of laser output spectrum,” Electron. Lett.16(16), 630–631 (1980). [CrossRef]

IEEE J. Quantum Electron.

• R. Lang, “Injection locking properties of a semiconductor laser,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron.18(6), 976–983 (1982). [CrossRef]

IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron.

• J. Hansryd, P. A. Andrekson, M. Westlund, J. Li, and P. O. Hedekvist, “Fiber-based optical parametric amplifiers and their applications,” IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron.8(3), 506–520 (2002). [CrossRef]
• J. L. Hall, “Optical frequency measurement: 40 years of technology revolutions,” IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron.6(6), 1136–1144 (2000). [CrossRef]
• H. Murata, A. Morimoto, T. Kobayashi, and S. Yamamoto, “Optical pulse generation by electrooptic-modulation method and its application to integrated ultrashort pulse generators,” IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron.6(6), 1325–1331 (2000). [CrossRef]
• S. Radic, “Parametric signal processing,” IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron.18(2), 670–680 (2012). [CrossRef]

IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett.

• C.-S. Brès, A. O. J. Wiberg, B. P. P. Kuo, N. Alic, and S. Radic, “Wavelength multicasting of 320Gb/s channel in self-seeded parametric amplifier,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett.21(14), 1002–1004 (2009). [CrossRef]
• R. Slavík, F. Parmigiani, L. Grüner-Nielsen, D. Jakobsen, S. Herstrøm, P. Petropoulos, and D. J. Richardson, “Stable and efficient generation of high repetition rate (>160 GHz) subpicosecond optical pulses,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett.23(9), 540–542 (2011). [CrossRef]
• J. Zhou, R. Hui, and N. Caponio, “Spectral linewidth and frequency chirp of four-wave mixing components in optical fibers,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett.6(3), 434–436 (1994). [CrossRef]
• S. Radic, C. J. McKinstrie, R. M. Jopson, J. C. Centanni, A. R. Chraplyvy, C. G. Jorgensen, K. Brar, and C. Headley, “Selective suppression of idler spectral broadening in two-pump parametric architectures,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett.15(5), 673–675 (2003). [CrossRef]
• E. Myslivets, C. Lundström, J. M. Aparicio, S. Moro, A. O. J. Wiberg, C.-S. Bres, N. Alic, P. A. Andrekson, and S. Radic, “Spatial equalization of zero dispersion wavelength profiles in nonlinear fibers,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett.21(24), 1807–1809 (2009). [CrossRef]

J. Lightwave Technol.

• B. P. P. Kuo, E. Myslivets, N. Alic, and S. Radic, “Wavelength multicasting via frequency comb generation in a bandwidth-enhanced fiber optical parametric mixer,” J. Lightwave Technol.29(23), 3515–3522 (2011). [CrossRef]

J. Opt. Soc. Am. B

• S. A. Diddams, “The evolving optical frequency comb,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. B27(11), B51–B60 (2010). [CrossRef]

Nat. Photonics

• J. Mandon, G. Guelachvili, and N. Picqué, “Fourier transform spectroscopy with a laser frequency comb,” Nat. Photonics3(2), 99–102 (2009). [CrossRef]
• Z. Jiang, C.-B. Huang, D. E. Leaird, and A. M. Weiner, “Optical arbitrary waveform processing of more than 100 spectral comb lines,” Nat. Photonics1(8), 463–467 (2007). [CrossRef]
• T. M. Fortier, M. S. Kirchner, F. Quinlan, J. Taylor, J. C. Bergquist, T. Rosenband, N. Lemke, A. Ludlow, Y. Jiang, C. W. Oates, and S. A. Diddams, “Generation of ultrastable microwaves via optical frequency division,” Nat. Photonics5(7), 425–429 (2011). [CrossRef]
• D. Hillerkuss, R. Schmogrow, T. Schellinger, M. Jordan, M. Winter, G. Huber, T. Vallaitis, R. Bonk, P. Kleinow, F. Frey, M. Roeger, S. Koenig, A. Ludwig, A. Marculescu, J. Li, M. Hoh, M. Dreschmann, J. Meyer, S. Ben Ezra, N. Narkiss, B. Nebendahl, F. Parmigiani, P. Petropoulos, B. Resan, A. Oehler, K. Weingarten, T. Ellermeyer, J. Lutz, M. Moeller, M. Huebner, J. Becker, C. Koos, W. Freude, and J. Leuthold, “26 Tbit s−1 line-rate super-channel transmission utilizing all-optical fast Fourier transform processing,” Nat. Photonics5(6), 364–371 (2011). [CrossRef]
• I. Coddington, W. C. Swann, L. Nenadovic, and N. R. Newbury, “Rapid and precise absolute distance measurements at long range,” Nat. Photonics3(6), 351–356 (2009). [CrossRef]
• R. Slavík, F. Parmigiani, J. Kakande, C. Lundström, M. Sjödin, P. A. Andrekson, R. Weerasuriya, S. Sygletos, A. D. Ellis, L. Grüner-Nielsen, D. Jakobsen, S. Herstrøm, R. Phelan, J. O'Gorman, A. Bogris, D. Syvridis, S. Dasgupta, P. Petropoulos, and D. J. Richardson, “All-optical phase and amplitude regenerator for next-generation telecommunications systems,” Nat. Photonics4(10), 690–695 (2010). [CrossRef]

Nature

• Th. Udem, R. Holzwarth, and T. W. Hänsch, “Optical frequency metrology,” Nature416(6877), 233–237 (2002). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Opt. Express

• E. Myslivets, B. P. P. Kuo, N. Alic, and S. Radic, “Generation of wideband frequency combs by continuous-wave seeding of multistage mixers with synthesized dispersion,” Opt. Express20(3), 3331–3344 (2012). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• A. Cerqueira Sodre, J. M. Chavez Boggio, A. A. Rieznik, H. E. Hernandez-Figueroa, H. L. Fragnito, and J. C. Knight, “Highly efficient generation of broadband cascaded four-wave mixing products,” Opt. Express16(4), 2816–2828 (2008). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• F. C. Cruz, “Optical frequency combs generated by four-wave mixing in optical fibers for astrophysical spectrometer calibration and metrology,” Opt. Express16(17), 13267–13275 (2008). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• P. Horak and W. H. Loh, “On the delayed self-heterodyne interferometric technique for determining the linewidth of fiber lasers,” Opt. Express14(9), 3923–3928 (2006). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• Z. Tong, A. Bogris, M. Karlsson, and P. A. Andrekson, “Full characterization of the signal and idler noise figure spectra in single-pumped fiber optical parametric amplifiers,” Opt. Express18(3), 2884–2893 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Opt. Quantum Electron.

• F. Kéfélian, R. Gabet, and P. Gallion, “Characteristics of the phase noise correlation of injection locked lasers for RF signal generation and transmission,” Opt. Quantum Electron.38(4-6), 467–478 (2006). [CrossRef]

Phys. Rev. Lett.

• W. H. Oskay, S. A. Diddams, E. A. Donley, T. M. Fortier, T. P. Heavner, L. Hollberg, W. M. Itano, S. R. Jefferts, M. J. Delaney, K. Kim, F. Levi, T. E. Parker, and J. C. Bergquist, “Single-atom optical clock with high accuracy,” Phys. Rev. Lett.97(2), 020801 (2006). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Proc. IEEE

• C. Buczek, R. J. Freiberg, and M. L. Skolnick, “Laser injection locking,” Proc. IEEE61(10), 1411–1431 (1973). [CrossRef]

Rev. Mod. Phys.

• S. T. Cundiff and J. Ye, “Colloquium: Femtosecond optical frequency combs,” Rev. Mod. Phys.75(1), 325–342 (2003). [CrossRef]

Science

• T. Steinmetz, T. Wilken, C. Araujo-Hauck, R. Holzwarth, T. W. Hänsch, L. Pasquini, A. Manescau, S. D’Odorico, M. T. Murphy, T. Kentischer, W. Schmidt, and T. Udem, “Laser frequency combs for astronomical observations,” Science321(5894), 1335–1337 (2008). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• T. J. Kippenberg, R. Holzwarth, and S. A. Diddams, “Microresonator-based optical frequency combs,” Science332(6029), 555–559 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• D. J. Jones, S. A. Diddams, J. K. Ranka, A. Stentz, R. S. Windeler, J. L. Hall, and S. T. Cundiff, “Carrier-envelope phase control of femtosecond mode-locked lasers and direct optical frequency synthesis,” Science288(5466), 635–639 (2000). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Other

• J. M. C. Boggio, S. Moro, N. Alic, M. Karlsson, J. Bland-Hawthorn, and S. Radic, “Nearly octave-spanning cascaded four-wave-mixing generation in low dispersion highly nonlinear fiber,” in European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC), paper 9.1.2 (2009).
• B. P. P. Kuo, E. Myslivets, N. Alic, and S. Radic, “Laser coherence enhancement by extra-cavity parametric mixing,” in Optical Fiber Communications Conference (OFC), paper PDP5A.3 (2012).
• J. Kakande, R. Slavík, F. Parmigiani, P. Petropoulos, and D. Richardson, “Overcoming electronic limits to optical phase measurements with an optical phase-only amplifier,” in Optical Fiber Communications Conference (OFC), paper PDP5C.9 (2012).
• R. Weerasuriya, S. Sygletos, S. K. Ibrahim, R. Phelan, J. O’Carroll, B. Kelly, J. O’Gorman, and A. D. Ellis, “Generation of frequency symmetric signals from a BPSK input for phase sensitive amplification,” in Optical Fiber Communications Conference (OFC), paper OWT6 (2010).
• S. K. Korotky, P. B. Hansen, L. Eskildsen, and J. J. Veselka, “Efficient phase modulation scheme for suppressing stimulated Brillouin scattering, in International Conference Integrated Optics and Optical Fiber Communications (IOOC), paper WD2–1 (1995).
• K. Petermann, Diode Modulation and Noise (Kluwer Academic, 1988), Chap. 7.
• S. L. I. Olsson, B. Corcoran, C. Lundström, E. Tipsuwannakul, S. Sygletos, A. D. Ellis, Z. Tong, M. Karlsson, and P. A. Andrekson, “Optical injection-locking-based pump recovery for phase-sensitively amplified links,” in Optical Fiber Communications Conference (OFC), paper OW3C (2012).

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