Multi-Soliton Microcombs Enable Ultrafast Nanometric-Precision Ranging and Photon-Level Detection.

Area of Science:

• Photonics and Optical Engineering
• Precision Metrology
• Quantum Optics

Background:

• Optical microcombs are valuable for precision ranging due to their unique properties.
• Existing microcomb states (single-soliton and chaotic) present a trade-off between coherence and efficiency.
• This limits their practical deployment in high-precision measurement systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To overcome the limitations of single-soliton and chaotic microcombs for enhanced precision ranging.
• To implement and evaluate multi-soliton microcombs in a dual-comb system.
• To demonstrate the capabilities of multi-soliton ranging in various applications.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of multi-soliton states in a dual-comb configuration.
• Utilizing three solitons in both combs for initial experiments.
• Employing a five-soliton signal comb with a single-soliton local comb for photon-level ranging.
• Conducting experiments for vibration monitoring, object tracking, and outdoor measurements.

Main Results:

• Achieved measurement uncertainty within ±17 nm and precision of 1.43 nm (2 µs) and 3.42 pm (500 µs) using three solitons.
• Demonstrated photon-level ranging with uncertainty below ±9.5 µm and precision of 3.57 µm (1 s) and 202 nm (50 s).
• Successfully applied multi-soliton ranging to vibration monitoring, spinning disk measurement, UAV tracking, outdoor ranging (~270 m), and non-line-of-sight imaging.

Conclusions:

• Multi-soliton microcombs in dual-comb systems offer superior precision, speed, and efficiency compared to single-soliton methods.
• This technology enables nanometric precision ranging and opens new avenues for optical communications, spectroscopy, and time transfer.
• The demonstrated capabilities highlight the potential for advanced optical metrology in real-world scenarios.