Ultra-Low Jitter, 1550 nm Mode-Locked Semiconductor Laser Synchronized to a Visible Optical Frequency Standard

Published

October 12, 2021

Author(s)

D J. Jones, K W. Holman, M Notcutt, Jun Ye, J Chandalia, L A. Jiang, Erich P. Ippen, H Yokoyama

Abstract

Using high-badwidth feedback, we ahve synchronized the pulse train from a mode-locked semiconductor laser (MLLD) to an external clock signal and achieved the lowest timing jitter (20 fs, intergrated from 1 Hz to 10 MHz) for such devices. The stabilization work incolves injection of an external microwave clock signal (derived from an optical standard) into the saturable absorber section of the MLLD, aided with an electronic servo loop that acts on bothe the dide injection current and the external-cavity mirror position. The performance is at present limited by the intrinsic noise of the phase detector used for timing jitter measurement. We expect such a highly stable MLLD to play an important role in future fiber-network-based precise time/frequency distribution.

Citation

Optics Letters

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

feedback, mode-locked laser diode, synchronization, timing jitter

Citation

Jones, D. , Holman, K. , Notcutt, M. , Ye, J. , Chandalia, J. , Jiang, L. , Ippen, E. and Yokoyama, H. (2021), Ultra-Low Jitter, 1550 nm Mode-Locked Semiconductor Laser Synchronized to a Visible Optical Frequency Standard, Optics Letters (Accessed October 11, 2025)