论文标题
具有高动态范围,宽带光谱塑形器的扁平激光频率梳光谱
Flattening laser frequency comb spectra with a high dynamic range, broadband spectral shaper on-a-chip
论文作者
论文摘要
光谱塑形对许多科学领域至关重要。例如,在天文学中,通过多普勒效应检测系外行星对校准高分辨率光谱仪的能力取决于。激光频率梳子可用于此功能,但是整个频谱的强度差异很大可能使得无法最佳利用整个梳子,从而降低了校准的总体精度。为了避免这种情况,激光频率梳的天文应用依赖于散装光学设置,该设置可以在将其发送到光谱仪之前将输出频谱弄平。这样的扁平机需要复杂且昂贵的光学元素,例如空间光调节器,并且具有不可忽略的台式足迹。在这里,我们提出了一种全光谱塑形器形式的替代方案,该替代品可用于扁平激光频率梳子的光谱。 The device consists of a circuit etched into a silicon nitride wafer that supports an arrayed-waveguide grating to disperse the light over hundreds of nanometers in wavelength, followed by Mach-Zehnder interferometers to control the amplitude of each channel, thermo-optic phase modulators to phase the channels and a second arrayed-waveguide grating to recombine the spectrum.演示器设备从1400到1800 nm(覆盖天文h频段),具有二十20 nm宽的通道。该设备允许通过MACH-ZEHNDERS对光谱进行近40 dbs的动态调制,这比大多数空间光调节器提供的频谱大。使用超发光二极管,我们将静态光谱变化降低至〜3 dB,受电路中使用的组件的性质和激光频率梳的限制,我们设法将调制降低到5 dBs,足以使天文学应用。
Spectral shaping is critical to many fields of science. In astronomy for example, the detection of exoplanets via the Doppler effect hinges on the ability to calibrate a high resolution spectrograph. Laser frequency combs can be used for this, but the wildly varying intensity across the spectrum can make it impossible to optimally utilize the entire comb, leading to a reduced overall precision of calibration. To circumvent this, astronomical applications of laser frequency combs rely on a bulk optic setup which can flatten the output spectrum before sending it to the spectrograph. Such flatteners require complex and expensive optical elements like spatial light modulators and have non-negligible bench top footprints. Here we present an alternative in the form of an all-photonic spectral shaper that can be used to flatten the spectrum of a laser frequency comb. The device consists of a circuit etched into a silicon nitride wafer that supports an arrayed-waveguide grating to disperse the light over hundreds of nanometers in wavelength, followed by Mach-Zehnder interferometers to control the amplitude of each channel, thermo-optic phase modulators to phase the channels and a second arrayed-waveguide grating to recombine the spectrum. The demonstrator device operates from 1400 to 1800 nm (covering the astronomical H band), with twenty 20 nm wide channels. The device allows for nearly 40 dBs of dynamic modulation of the spectrum via the Mach-Zehnders , which is greater than that offered by most spatial light modulators. With a superluminescent diode, we reduced the static spectral variation to ~3 dB, limited by the properties of the components used in the circuit and on a laser frequency comb we managed to reduce the modulation to 5 dBs, sufficient for astronomical applications.