Abstract

A synchronization scheme for extraction of low-jitter rf signals from optical pulse trains, which is robust against photodetector nonlinearities, is described. The scheme is based on a transfer of timing information into an intensity imbalance of the two output beams from a Sagnac loop. Sub-100-fs timing jitter between the extracted 2-GHz rf signal and the 100-MHz optical pulse train from a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser is demonstrated.

© 2004 Optical Society of America

Mode-locked laser pulse trains with subfemtosecond timing jitter synchronized to an optical reference oscillator

A. Bartels, S. A. Diddams, T. M. Ramond, and L. Hollberg
Opt. Lett. 28(8) 663-665 (2003)

Long-term stable microwave signal extraction from mode-locked lasers

J. Kim, F. Ludwig, M. Felber, and F. X. Kärtner
Opt. Express 15(14) 8951-8959 (2007)

Broadband phase-coherent optical frequency synthesis with actively linked Ti:sapphire and Cr:forsterite femtosecond lasers

Albrecht Bartels, Nathan R. Newbury, Isabell Thomann, Leo Hollberg, and Scott A. Diddams
Opt. Lett. 29(4) 403-405 (2004)

Ultralow-jitter, 1550-nm mode-locked semiconductor laser synchronized to a visible optical frequency standard

David J. Jones, Kevin W. Holman, Mark Notcutt, Jun Ye, Juhi Chandalia, Leaf A. Jiang, Erich P. Ippen, and H. Yokoyama
Opt. Lett. 28(10) 813-815 (2003)

Balanced optical-microwave phase detectors for optoelectronic phase-locked loops

J. Kim, F. X. Kärtner, and F. Ludwig
Opt. Lett. 31(24) 3659-3661 (2006)