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Passively mode-locked laser with an ultra-narrow spectral width

Nature Photonics volume 11, pages 159–162 (2017)Cite this article

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A Corrigendum to this article was published on 01 September 2017

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Abstract

Most mode-locking techniques introduced in the past1,2 focused mainly on increasing the spectral bandwidth to achieve ultrashort, sub-picosecond-long coherent light pulses. By contrast, less importance seemed to be given to mode-locked lasers generating Fourier-transform-limited nanosecond pulses, which feature the narrow spectral bandwidths required for applications in spectroscopy3, the efficient excitation of molecules4, sensing and quantum optics5. Here, we demonstrate a passively mode-locked laser system that relies on simultaneous nested cavity filtering and cavity-enhanced nonlinear interactions within an integrated microring resonator. This allows us to produce optical pulses in the nanosecond regime (4.3 ns in duration), with an overall spectral bandwidth of 104.9 MHz—more than two orders of magnitude smaller than previous realizations. The very narrow bandwidth of our laser makes it possible to fully characterize its spectral properties in the radiofrequency domain using widely available GHz-bandwidth optoelectronic components. In turn, this characterization reveals the strong coherence of the generated pulse train.

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Figure 1: Experimental set-up of the laser scheme.
Figure 2: Laser characterization.
Figure 3: Beating measurement with a CW laser.
Figure 4: Temperature tuning characteristics of the laser emission frequency.

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Change history

  • 01 August 2017

    In the version of this Letter originally published, in the Acknowledgements, the following information was unavailable at the time of publication: "B.E.L. was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, grant no. XDB24030000." This information has now been added in the online versions of the Letter.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) through the Steacie and Discovery Grants Schemes, by the MESI PSR-SIIRI Initiative in Quebec and by the Australian Research Council Discovery Projects scheme. C.R. and P.R. acknowledge the support of NSERC Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships. M.K. acknowledges funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 656607. B.W. acknowledges the support from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's FP7 Programme for INCIPIT under REA grant agreement no. 625466. S.T.C. acknowledges the support from the CityU SRG-Fd programme no. 7004189. R.M. acknowledges support by the NSERC Discovery and Strategic Grant Programs. B.E.L. was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, grant no. XDB24030000. We thank R. Helsten for the design of the temperature controller, J. Azaña for providing some of the required experimental equipment and G. Huyet for useful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique-Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications, 1650 Boulevard Lionel-Boulet, Varennes, J3X 1S2, Québec, Canada

    Michael Kues, Christian Reimer, Benjamin Wetzel, Piotr Roztocki, Tobias Hansson & Roberto Morandotti

  2. School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Rankine Building, Oakfield Avenue, Glasgow, G12 8LT, UK

    Michael Kues

  3. School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, BN1 9RH, Brighton, UK

    Benjamin Wetzel

  4. State Key Laboratory of Transient Optics and Photonics, Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Science, Xinxi Ave, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China

    Brent E. Little

  5. Department of Physics and Materials Science, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Sai T. Chu

  6. National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia

    Evgeny A. Viktorov & Roberto Morandotti

  7. Centre for Micro Photonics, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, 3122, Victoria, Australia

    David J. Moss

  8. Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610054, China

    Roberto Morandotti

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Contributions

M.K. and C.R. developed the idea and the experiment. B.E.L. and S.T.C. designed and fabricated the integrated device. C.R., M.K., B.W. and P.R. performed the measurements and analysed the experimental results. E.A.V., T.H. and D.J.M. helped and contributed to scientific discussions. R.M. supervised and managed the project. All authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Michael Kues or Roberto Morandotti.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Kues, M., Reimer, C., Wetzel, B. et al. Passively mode-locked laser with an ultra-narrow spectral width. Nature Photon 11, 159–162 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2016.271

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