Dual frequency laser with two continuously and widely tunable frequencies for optical referencing of GHz to THz beatnotes

Gwennaël Danion (1) , Cyril Hamel (1) , Ludovic Frein (1) , François Bondu (1) , Goulc'Hen Loas (1) , Mehdi Alouini (1)

1 IPR - Institut de Physique de Rennes

A dual-frequency 1.55 μm laser for CW low noise microwave, millimeter and sub millimeter wave synthesis is demonstrated, where frequency stabilization is possible on each wavelength independently. The solid state Er:Yb laser output power is 7 mW. The amplitude noise is −150 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset frequency. In free running regime, the frequency noise is 3.10^5/f Hz/sqrt(Hz) (800 Hz on a 1μs timescale), better than commercial fibered or semi-conductor sources at this wavelength.

Mots clés: Far infrared or terahertz.; Radio frequency photonics; solid-state; Lasers

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Gwennaël Danion, Cyril Hamel, Ludovic Frein, François Bondu, Goulc'Hen Loas, et al.. Dual frequency laser with two continuously and widely tunable frequencies for optical referencing of GHz to THz beatnotes. Optics Express, 2014, 22 (15), pp.17673. ⟨10.1364/OE.22.017673⟩. ⟨hal-01081126⟩