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  • Review Article
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Photonic-chip-based frequency combs

Nature Photonics volume 13, pages 158–169 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Recent developments in chip-based nonlinear photonics offer the tantalizing prospect of realizing many applications that can use optical frequency comb devices that have form factors smaller than 1 cm3 and that require less than 1 W of power. A key feature that enables such technology is the tight confinement of light due to the high refractive index contrast between the core and the cladding. This simultaneously produces high optical nonlinearities and allows for dispersion engineering to realize and phase match parametric nonlinear processes with laser-pointer powers across large spectral bandwidths. In this Review, we summarize the developments, applications and underlying physics of optical frequency comb generation in photonic-chip waveguides via supercontinuum generation and in microresonators via Kerr-comb generation that enable comb technology from the near-ultraviolet to the mid-infrared regime.

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Fig. 1: Chip-based frequency comb generation.
Fig. 2: Dispersion engineering for comb generation.
Fig. 3: Coherent comb SCG spectra generated in chip-based platforms with DW generation via dispersion engineering.
Fig. 4: Numerical simulation of soliton formation in a silicon microresonator.
Fig. 5: Experimental observation of soliton steps and generation of multiple soliton states.
Fig. 6: Integrated frequency comb source and potential implementations.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Y. Okawachi and M. Yu for help in preparing Table 1 and Figs. 1, 2 and 6. This work was supported by AFOSR program award number FA9550-15-1-0303 and the ARPA-E PINE program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Alexander L. Gaeta

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Michal Lipson

  3. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Physics, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Tobias J. Kippenberg

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  1. Alexander L. Gaeta
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Gaeta, A.L., Lipson, M. & Kippenberg, T.J. Photonic-chip-based frequency combs. Nature Photon 13, 158–169 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-019-0358-x

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