Kerr frequency combs @ IFCS 2016 (9 to 12 May)

At this years International Frequency Control Symposium Kerr frequency combs are present with a focus session on Wednesday, 11 May starting at 10:10am and ending at 12:10pm. This session features the following presentations:

  • Kerry Vahala, Caltech:  New Directions for Optical Frequency Division: Soliton Microcombs and Electro-Optical-Modulation 
  • Andrey Matsko, OEwaves: Turn-Key Operation and Stabilization of Kerr Frequency Combs
  • Michal Lipson, Columbia:  High Quality On-Chip Resonators for Frequency Combs
  • Erwan Lucas, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL): Low Noise Microwave Generation via Temporal Soliton Formation in a Crystalline Optical Microresonator with a Narrow Linewidth Laser

State-of-the-art commercial optical data transmission

One often cited and also actively researched application for Kerr frequency combs is optical data transmission. Because of their large mode spacing, which is compatible with the ITU grid of 25, 50 or 100 GHz, Kerr frequency combs can make the ideal source for coherent data transmission. In principle it would be possible to replace several hundred individual lasers with one Kerr frequency comb. In addition it would be possible to use the coherence of the frequency comb lines to reduce effects of nonlinearity. However, before looking into the advantages of Kerr frequency combs for data transmission applications, I thought it would be a good idea to see, what the current, commercial technology is capable of. And I have to say, I am quite impressed. Here is some information about a recently installed sea fiber link in the Baltic Sea, the C-Lion-1: 15 TBits/s per fiber, 8 fibers, 120 TBits/s aggregated capacity! See below how this is achieved.

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Publication Update No. 6

In the time from 16th of April to 24th of April the following papers were published (in no particular order):

Missed before:

X. Xue, A. M. Weiner, Frontiers of Optoelectronics 9, 238: Microwave photonics connected with microresonator frequency combs

Kerr comb specific:

A. G. Griffith, et al., Arxiv: 1604.06436: Raman-assisted coherent, mid-infrared frequency combs in silicon microresonators.

J. Liu, et al., Arxiv: 1604.05149: Frequency Comb Assisted Broadband Precision Spectroscopy with Cascaded Diode Lasers.

X. Yi, et al., Opt. Lett. 41, 2037: Active capture and stabilization of temporal solitons in microresonators

F. Leo, PRA 93, 043831: Frequency-comb formation in doubly resonant second-harmonic generation

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Kerr frequency combs @ CLEO (5 to 10 June)

Dedicated sessions:

  • Monday 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM:
    FM2A. Microresonator and Combs
    Presider(s): Kerry Vahala
    Executive Ballroom 210A (Convention Center)
  • Tuesday 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM:
    STu1H. Micro Resonators and Kerr Combs
    Presider(s): Guanhao Wu
    Executive Ballroom 210H (Convention Center)
  • Tuesday 1:30 PM – 3:30 PM:
    STu3Q. Microresonator Combs I
    Presider(s): Miro Erkintalo
    Salon IV (Marriott)
  • Tuesday 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM:
    STu4Q. Microresonator Combs II
    Presider(s): Curtis Menyuk
    Salon IV (Marriott)
  • Wednesday 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM:
    SW1E. Microresonator Frequency Combs I
    Presider(s): Paulina Kuo
    Executive Ballroom 210E (Convention Center)

List of individual presentations below.

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