A wideband, high-resolution vector spectrum analyzer for integrated photonics

Abstract

The analysis of optical spectra - emission or absorption -- has been arguably the most powerful approach for discovering and understanding matters. The invention and development of many kinds of spectrometers have equipped us with versatile yet ultra-sensitive diagnostic tools for trace gas detection, isotope analysis, and resolving hyperfine structures of atoms and molecules. With proliferating data and information, urgent and demanding requirements have been placed today on spectrum analysis with ever-increasing spectral bandwidth and frequency resolution. These requirements are especially stringent for broadband laser sources that carry massive information, and for dispersive devices used in information processing systems. In addition, spectrum analyzers are expected to probe the device's phase response where extra information is encoded. Here we demonstrate a novel vector spectrum analyzer (VSA) that is capable of characterizing passive devices and active laser sources in one setup. Such a dual-mode VSA can measure loss, phase response and dispersion properties of passive devices. It also can coherently map a broadband laser spectrum into the RF domain. The VSA features a bandwidth of 55.1 THz (1260 to 1640 nm), frequency resolution of 471 kHz, and dynamic range of 56 dB. Meanwhile, our fiber-based VSA is compact and robust. It requires neither high-speed modulators and photodetectors, nor any active feedback control. Finally, we successfully employ our VSA for applications including characterization of integrated dispersive waveguides, mapping frequency comb spectra, and coherent light detection and ranging (LiDAR). Our VSA presents an innovative approach for device analysis and laser spectroscopy, and can play a critical role in future photonic systems and applications for sensing, communication, imaging, and quantum information processing.

References in corpus (23)

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• Frequency comb spectroscopy
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• Mid-infrared frequency comb generation with silicon nitride nano-photonic waveguides
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• Frequency Comb Assisted Diode Laser Spectroscopy for Measurement of Microcavity Dispersion
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• Doppler-free Fourier transform spectroscopy
• High-performance microresonator optical parametric oscillator on a silicon chip
• On-chip optical parametric oscillation into the visible: generating red, orange, yellow, and green from a near-infrared pump
• Optical vector analysis with attometer resolution, 90-dB dynamic range and THz bandwidth
• Waveguide optical parametric amplifiers in silicon nitride with 2D graphene oxide films
• A unified approach to mode splitting and scattering loss in high-Q whispering-gallery-mode microresonators
• Frequency-comb-linearized, widely tunable lasers for coherent ranging

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Ultralow-loss integrated photonics enables bright, narrow-band, photon-pair sources
• A chip-integrated comb-based microwave oscillator
• Programmable access to microresonator solitons with modulational sideband heating
• A chip-based optoelectronic-oscillator frequency comb
• Universal Kerr-thermal dynamics of self-injection-locked microresonator dark pulses
• An alkali-referenced vector spectrum analyzer for visible-light integrated photonics
• Light coupling to photonic integrated circuits using optimized lensed fibers