Project Abstract

Optical frequency combs offer a unique way of creating light sources that are simultaneously both broadband and coherent, with envisioned integrated sources offering a wealth of potential applications in, e.g., telecommunications and spectroscopy. In the QUADCOMB project, we propose the development of a theoretical framework to model and explore a promising new approach to optical frequency comb generation using microresonators with quadratic nonlinearities. Quadratic frequency combo opens up exciting new opportunities since such resonators can be operated with very low pump power, a crucial feature for on-chip integration. However, the nonlinear dynamics of these comb generators is highly complex, and a better theoretical understanding of the comb formation dynamics will be required before they can be ready for practical use in applications. In the QUADCOMB project we will study the nonlinear dynamics of frequency comb generation in microresonators with simultaneous cubic and quadratic nonlinearities, and theoretically and numerically investigate different dynamical regimes, instability mechanisms, phase-noise properties and dissipative temporal structures. Particularly, we aim to investigate comb generation in an AlGaAsplatform, and design and characterize AlGaAs based microresonators for the first experimental demonstration of an integrated quadratic comb source, in collaboration with our partner organizations.

• T. Hansson, M. Bernard, and S. Wabnitz, “Modulational instability of nonlinear polarization mode coupling in microresonators,” Journal of the Optical Society of America B 35, 835 (2018). Open Access link here
• S. Mosca, M. Parisi, I. Ricciardi, F. Leo, T. Hansson, M. Erkintalo, P. Maddaloni, P. De Natale, S. Wabnitz, and M. De Rosa, “Frequency comb generation in a continuously pumped optical parametric oscillator,” arXiv:1711.10469 [physics] (2017).