Pairwise mode-locking in dynamically-coupled parametric oscillators

Abstract

Mode locking in lasers is a collective effect, where due to a weak coupling a large number of frequency modes lock their phases to oscillate in unison, forming an ultrashort pulse in time. We demonstrate an analogous collective effect in coupled parametric oscillators, which we term "pairwise mode-locking", where many pairs of modes with twin frequencies (symmetric around the center carrier) oscillate simultaneously with a locked phase-sum, while the phases of individual modes remain undefined. Thus, despite being broadband and multimode, the emission is not pulsed and lacks first-order coherence, while possessing a very high degree of second-order coherence. Our configuration is comprised of two coupled parametric oscillators within identical multimode cavities, where the coupling between the oscillators is modulated in time at the repetition rate of the cavity modes, with some analogy to active mode-locking in lasers. We demonstrate pairwise mode-locking in a radio-frequency (RF) experiment, covering over an octave of bandwidth with approximately 20 resonant mode-locked pairs, filling most of the available bandwidth between DC and the pump frequency. We accompany our experiment with an analytic model that accounts for the properties of the coupled parametric oscillators near threshold.

arXiv comment6 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (24)

• Enhancing the sensitivity of the LIGO gravitational wave detector by using squeezed states of light
• Quantum Illumination with Gaussian States
• Continuous variable quantum cryptography
• Ultra-Large-Scale Continuous-Variable Cluster States Multiplexed in the Time Domain
• Experimental realization of multipartite entanglement of 60 modes of a quantum optical frequency comb
• One-Way Quantum Computing in the Optical Frequency Comb
• Experimental demonstration of three-color entanglement
• Generation of Bright Two-Color Continuous Variable Entanglement
• Large-scale Ising spin network based on degenerate optical parametric oscillators
• Two photon absorption and coherent control with broadband down-converted light
• Nonlinear interactions with an ultrahigh flux of broadband entangled photons
• Surpassing the standard quantum limit for optical imaging using non-classical multimode light
• Temporal shaping of entangled photons
• Experimental generation of four-mode continuous-variable cluster states
• Criteria for Continuous-Variable Quantum Teleportation
• Generation and characterization of multimode quantum frequency combs
• Full multipartite entanglement of frequency comb Gaussian states
• Quantum theory of Synchronously Pumped type I Optical Parametric Oscillators: characterization of the squeezed supermodes
• All-Optical Quantum Random Bit Generation from Intrinsically Binary Phase of Parametric Oscillators
• Persistent coherent beating in coupled parametric oscillators
• A quantum annealer with fully programmable all-to-all coupling via Floquet engineering
• Weaving quantum optical frequency combs into continuous-variable hypercubic cluster states
• Theory of coupled parametric oscillators beyond coupled Ising spins
• Two-mode squeezed vacuum and squeezed light in correlated interferometry