Visible to Ultraviolet Frequency Comb Generation in Lithium Niobate Nanophotonic Waveguides

Published

January 15, 2024

Author(s)

Tsung Han Wu, Luis Ledezma, Connor Fredrick, Pooja Sekhar, Ryoto Sekine, Quishi Guo, Ryan Briggs, Alireza Marandi, Scott Diddams

Abstract

The introduction of nonlinear nanophotonic devices to the field of optical frequency comb metrology has enabled new opportunities for low-power and chip-integrated clocks, high-precision frequency synthesis, and broad bandwidth spectroscopy. However, most of these advances remain constrained to the near-infrared region of the spectrum, which has restricted the integration of frequency combs with numerous quantum and atomic systems in the ultraviolet and visible. Here, we overcome this shortcoming using nanophotonic thin-film lithium niobate (LN) waveguides with chirped poling periods for efficient supercontinuum generation via the combination of $\chi^(2)}$ and $\chi^(3)}$ nonlinearities. With only 90 pJ of 1550 nm pulse energy, we achieve gap-free frequency comb coverage spanning 330 to 2400 nm. The conversion efficiency from the near-infrared pump to the UV-Visible region of 350-550 nm is nearly 20\%. Harmonic generation via the $\chi^(2)}$ nonlinearity in the same waveguide directly yields the carrier-envelope offset frequency and a means to verify the comb coherence at wavelengths as short as 350 nm. Our results provide an integrated photonics approach to create visible and UV frequency combs that will impact precision spectroscopy, quantum information processing, and optical clock applications in this important spectral window.

Citation

The paper will be submitted to Nature Photonics

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-023-01364-0

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Keywords

frequency comb, nano photonics, nonlinear optics

Citation

Wu, T. , Ledezma, L. , Fredrick, C. , Sekhar, P. , Sekine, R. , Guo, Q. , Briggs, R. , Marandi, A. and Diddams, S. (2024), Visible to Ultraviolet Frequency Comb Generation in Lithium Niobate Nanophotonic Waveguides, The paper will be submitted to Nature Photonics, [online], https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-023-01364-0, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=936833 (Accessed October 11, 2025)