Photonic chip-based low-noise microwave oscillator.

Area of Science:

• Photonics
• Microwave Engineering
• Integrated Optics

Background:

• Modern technologies require low-phase noise and stable microwave signals.
• Current microwave photonics systems use bulk or fiber optics, limiting miniaturization and power efficiency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a compact and power-efficient integrated photonic system for low-noise microwave signal generation.
• To overcome the limitations of bulk optics in current microwave photonic systems.

Main Methods:

• Utilized two-point optical frequency division on a chip.
• Stabilized narrow-linewidth lasers to a miniature Fabry-Pérot cavity.
• Employed a dark soliton frequency comb for optical frequency division and photodetected the output.

Main Results:

• Generated a 20 GHz microwave signal with phase noise of -96 dBc/Hz at 100 Hz offset, decreasing to -135 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz offset.
• Achieved unprecedented phase noise performance for an integrated photonic system.
• Demonstrated heterogeneous integration of all photonic components on a single chip.

Conclusions:

• The developed integrated photonic system offers a significant advancement for high-precision navigation, communication, and timing.
• This chip-scale solution paves the way for smaller, more power-efficient microwave signal generation.
• The results highlight the potential of integrated photonics to revolutionize precision timing applications.