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Enabling arbitrary wavelength frequency combs on chip
Author(s) -
Soltani Mohammad,
Matsko Andrey,
Maleki Lute
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
laser and photonics reviews
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.778
H-Index - 116
eISSN - 1863-8899
pISSN - 1863-8880
DOI - 10.1002/lpor.201500226
Subject(s) - resonator , optics , physics , wavelength , optoelectronics , frequency comb , dispersion (optics) , chip , whispering gallery wave , telecommunications , laser , computer science
A necessary condition for generation of bright soliton Kerr frequency combs in microresonators is to achieve anomalous group velocity dispersion (GVD) for the resonator modes. This condition is hard to implement in the visible as well as ultraviolet since the majority of optical materials are characterized with large normal GVD in these wavelength regions. We overcome this challenge by borrowing ideas from strongly dispersive coupled systems in solid state physics and optics. We show that photonic compound ring resonators can possess large anomalous GVD at any desirable wavelength, even if each individual resonator is characterized with normal GVD. Based on this concept, we design a mode‐locked frequency comb with thin‐film silicon nitride compound ring resonators in the vicinity of the rubidium D 1 line (794.6 nm) and propose to use this optical comb as a flywheel for chip‐scale optical clocks.