A chip-scale optical frequency reference for the telecommunication band based on acetylene

Published

March 16, 2020

Author(s)

Roy Zektzer, Matthew T. Hummon, Liron Stern, Yefim Barash, Noa Mazurski, John Kitching, Levy Uriel

Abstract

Lasers precisely stabilized to known transitions between energy levels in simple, well-isolated quantum systems such as atoms and molecules are highly desired for myriad of applications ranging from precise measurements to optical communications. The implementation of such spectroscopic systems in a chip-scale format would allow for dramatically reduced cost and would likely open up significant new opportunities in both photonically-integrated platforms and free-space applications such as lidar. Here, we design, fabricate, and experimentally demonstrate a new platform based on chip-scale integration of serpentine photonic nanoscale waveguides with a miniaturized acetylene chamber potentially enabling cost effective, miniaturized and low power optical frequency references in the telecommunications C band spectral range (1530 nm - 1565 nm). We have used this platform to stabilize a telecom laser with a precision better than 400 kHz at 34 s. This small and portable chip-scale molecular cladded waveguide can be integrated with advanced components such as on-chip modulators, detectors, and other devices to form a complete locking system on-chip.

Citation

Optica

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

Integrated optics devices, Laser stabilization, Molecular spectroscopy, optical waveguide

Citation

Zektzer, R. , Hummon, M. , Stern, L. , Barash, Y. , Mazurski, N. , Kitching, J. and Uriel, L. (2020), A chip-scale optical frequency reference for the telecommunication band based on acetylene, Optica (Accessed October 7, 2025)