Frequency stability of a dual-mode whispering gallery mode optical reference cavity

Ultra-precise optical-frequency stabilization with heterogeneous III-V/Si lasers

The demand for low-noise, continuous-wave, frequency-tunable lasers based on semiconductor integrated photonics has advanced in support of numerous applications. In particular, an important goal is to achieve a narrow spectral linewidth, commensurate with bulk-optic or fiber-optic laser platforms. Here we report on laser-frequency-stabilization experiments with a heterogeneously integrated III/V-Si widely tunable laser and a high-finesse, thermal-noise-limited photonic resonator. This hybrid architecture offers a chip-scale optical-frequency reference with an integrated linewidth of 60 Hz and a fractional frequency stability of 2.5×10^-13 at 1 s integration time. We explore the potential for stabilization with respect to a resonator with lower thermal noise by characterizing laser-noise contributions such as residual amplitude modulation and photodetection noise. Widely tunable, compact and integrated, cost-effective, stable, and narrow-linewidth lasers are envisioned for use in various fields, including communication, spectroscopy, and metrology.

Optothermal dynamics in whispering-gallery microresonators

Optical whispering-gallery-mode microresonators with ultrahigh quality factors and small mode volumes have played an important role in modern physics. They have been demonstrated as a diverse platform for a wide range of applications in photonics, such as nonlinear optics, optomechanics, quantum optics, and information processing. Thermal behaviors induced by power build-up in the resonators or environmental perturbations are ubiquitous in high-quality-factor whispering-gallery-mode resonators and have played an important role in their operation for various applications. In this review, we discuss the mechanisms of laser-field-induced thermal nonlinear effects, including thermal bistability and thermal oscillation. With the help of the thermal bistability effect, optothermal spectroscopy and optical nonreciprocity have been demonstrated. By tuning the temperature of the environment, the resonant mode frequency will shift, which can also be used for thermal sensing/tuning applications. The thermal locking technique and thermal imaging mechanisms are discussed briefly. Finally, we review some techniques employed to achieve thermal stability in a high-quality-factor resonator system.

Probing 10 μK stability and residual drifts in the cross-polarized dual-mode stabilization of single-crystal ultrahigh-Q optical resonators

The thermal stability of monolithic optical microresonators is essential for many mesoscopic photonic applications such as ultrastable laser oscillators, photonic microwave clocks, and precision navigation and sensing. Their fundamental performance is largely bounded by thermal instability. Sensitive thermal monitoring can be achieved by utilizing cross-polarized dual-mode beat frequency metrology, determined by the polarization-dependent thermorefractivity of a single-crystal microresonator, wherein the heterodyne radio-frequency beat pins down the optical mode volume temperature for precision stabilization. Here, we investigate the correlation between the dual-mode beat frequency and the resonator temperature with time and the associated spectral noise of the dual-mode beat frequency in a single-crystal ultrahigh-Q MgF₂ resonator to illustrate that dual-mode frequency metrology can potentially be utilized for resonator temperature stabilization reaching the fundamental thermal noise limit in a realistic system. We show a resonator long-term temperature stability of 8.53 μK after stabilization and unveil various sources that hinder the stability from reaching sub-μK in the current system, an important step towards compact precision navigation, sensing, and frequency reference architectures.

Ultra-sensitive lithium niobate thermometer based on a dual-resonant whispering-gallery-mode cavity

We exploit the strong polarization dependence of the thermooptic coefficients in a lithium niobate whispering-gallery-mode resonator to create a self-referenced thermometer. An unprecedented temperature sensitivity of 3.0 GHz/K in the frequency difference between modes of orthogonal polarizations is demonstrated. In order to lock the lasers to the mode resonances, we use a simple intracavity phase modulation approach that provides for superbly low frequency instability. We demonstrate a record room-temperature thermometer detectivity of 40 nK with 1 s of averaging time. Simulations based on the fluctuation-dissipation theorem are performed to calculate the fundamental thermorefractive noise, showing that the detectivity could be improved with reduced laser-locking instabilities.

Self-referenced temperature sensing with a lithium niobate microdisk resonator

Self-referenced temperature sensing based on thermo-optic birefringence is demonstrated on a Z-cut lithium niobate microdisk resonator. Due to the significant difference between thermo-optic coefficients of ordinary and extraordinary light, quasi-transverse magnetic (quasi-TM) and quasi-transverse electric (quasi-TE) modes in the microdisk show relative cavity resonance shift upon temperature change, which acts as a robust self-reference for temperature sensing. A temperature sensitivity of 0.834  GHz/K and a measurement uncertainty of 0.8 mK are demonstrated with an optical input power of only 1.5 μW.

Towards next-generation label-free biosensors: recent advances in whispering gallery mode sensors

Whispering gallery mode biosensors have been widely exploited over the past decade to study molecular interactions by virtue of their high sensitivity and applicability in real-time kinetic analysis without the requirement to label. There have been immense research efforts made for advancing the instrumentation as well as the design of detection assays, with the common goal of progressing towards real-world sensing applications. We therefore review a set of recent developments made in this field and discuss the requirements that whispering gallery mode label-free sensors need to fulfill for making a real world impact outside of the laboratory. These requirements are directly related to the challenges that these sensors face, and the methods proposed to overcome them are discussed. Moving forward, we provide the future prospects and the potential impact of this technology.

Ultralow noise miniature external cavity semiconductor laser

Advanced applications in optical metrology demand improved lasers with high spectral purity, in form factors that are small and insensitive to environmental perturbations. While laboratory-scale lasers with extraordinarily high stability and low noise have been reported, all-integrated chip-scale devices with sub-100 Hz linewidth have not been previously demonstrated. Lasers integrated with optical microresonators as external cavities have the potential for substantial reduction of noise. However, stability and spectral purity improvements of these lasers have only been validated with rack-mounted support equipment, assembled with fibre lasers to marginally improve their noise performance. In this work we report on a realization of a heterogeneously integrated, chip-scale semiconductor laser featuring 30-Hz integral linewidth as well as sub-Hz instantaneous linewidth.

Sub-kHz lasing of a CaF₂ whispering gallery mode resonator stabilized fiber ring laser

We utilize a high quality calcium fluoride whispering-gallery-mode resonator to passively stabilize a simple erbium doped fiber ring laser with an emission frequency of 196THz (wavelength 1530nm) to an instantaneous linewidth below 650Hz. This corresponds to a relative stability of 3.3 × 10(-12) over 16μs. In order to characterize the linewidth we use two identical self-built lasers and a commercial laser to determine the individual lasing linewidth via the three-cornered-hat method. We further show that the lasers are finely tunable throughout the erbium gain region.

Nano-Kelvin thermometry and temperature control: beyond the thermal noise limit

We demonstrate thermometry with a resolution of 80  nK/Hz using an isotropic crystalline whispering-gallery mode resonator based on a dichroic dual-mode technique. We simultaneously excite two modes that have a mode frequency ratio that is very close to two (±0.3  ppm). The wavelength and temperature dependence of the refractive index means that the frequency difference between these modes is an ultrasensitive proxy of the resonator temperature. This approach to temperature sensing automatically suppresses sensitivity to thermal expansion and vibrationally induced changes of the resonator. We also demonstrate active suppression of temperature fluctuations in the resonator by controlling the intensity of the driving laser. The residual temperature fluctuations are shown to be below the limits set by fundamental thermodynamic fluctuations of the resonator material.