In mid-October, the Ultra-fast Laser Technology Research Team of XIOPM State Key Laboratory of Transient Optics and Photonics successfully developed a miniaturized femtosecond stabilized optical frequency comb light source. The light source, with the volume of only 280*136*36mm3, the power consumption of 12W, and the stability of the repetition frequency reaching 1.7*10-11 (second stable), realizes the low-power operation of the miniaturized femtosecond stabilized fiber optical frequency comb light source.
The femtosecond stabilized optical frequency comb source has excellent time-frequency characteristics such as wide spectrum, narrow pulse width, multi-longitudinal mode coherence and high repetition frequency stability, provides a new multi-wavelength coherent light source technology for the field of large-scale, absolute distance, high-precision measurement applications, and has significant application value in the fields of satellite formation flying, earth observation and high-end manufacturing. At the same time, the actual needs of these fields put forward higher requirements for femtosecond stabilized optical frequency comb light source, namely smaller volume, lower power consumption, stronger environmental adaptability. However, current femtosecond fiber optical frequency comb light source has the problems of complicated system and poor environmental adaptability.
In response to these difficulties, after more than two years of unremitting efforts, the researchers of the team has overcome many technical problems such as precision adjustment of cavity length, automatic control of frequency stabilization, thermal management, vibration isolation, etc., and finally developed a miniaturized femtosecond stabilized optical frequency comb source that can be used for absolute distance precision measurement. The light source realizes the generation and amplification of the femtosecond laser by adopting the all-polarization-maintaining fiber scheme, and ensure the long-term stable operation of the system with the self-developed integrated stabilized frequency control circuit and the cavity length precision adjustment unit. Other main parameters and performance characteristics include: variable pulse width: 110-280fs, output power up to 90mW, weight up to 1.3kg, operating temperature range (15-35) °C, and stable operation in a vibration environment with a peak acceleration of 2g.
At present, the miniaturized femtosecond stabilized optical frequency comb light source has passed the site acceptance and test and delivered to users. The successful development of this light source marks that the femtosecond optical frequency comb technology of XIOPM has stepped into a new stage in practicability.
The research is supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology’s National Key Scientific Instrument and Equipment Development Project and related user units.
Miniaturized Femtosecond Stabilized Optical Frequency Comb Light Source
Testing Result of Frequency Stability
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