ANR/ Custom laser pulse-trains and FRequency cOmbs using Space-Time duality (FROST)

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Ultrashort-pulse laser sources have had a revolutionary impact across multitude of fundamental and applied disciplines. Mode-locked fiber lasers are particularly interesting due to their compact and lightweight format, low cost, full compatibility with fiber-optics technologies and systems, etc. Still, fiber laser technologies exhibit an extremely constrained capability for controlling a key laser specification, its repetition rate, or the frequency spacing of the related periodic spectral comb. The repetition rate/frequency spacing in a basic mode-locked fiber laser is typically limited to tens of MHz, well below the needs for applications in high-speed communications, optical sampling, mm-wave and terahertz (THz) waveform synthesis, astronomical spectrometer calibration ("astrocombs") etc. Techniques for multiplying the laser nominal repetition rate have been proposed, e.g., harmonic mode-locking, but negatively affecting critical laser noise features. The proposed FROST project involves a collaborative effort between INRS, Univ. Laval, Genia Photonics (Canadian side), and two different groups, OPTIMA and LAME, at the LIPhy (Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Physique) in CNRS - Univ. Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, France, with the aim of creating a new class of practical low-noise ultrashort-pulse fiber laser systems, capable of providing tunable, on-demand repetition rates and optical frequency combs (OFCs), fulfilling the stringent requirements in communication, data processing, and frequency metrology applications. The novel fiber systems to be developed in FROST for pulse train and OFC generation will offer a unique performance, particularly concerning (i) their capability to program the repetition rate or frequency spacing from a few tens of MHz to the THz range, (ii) their low-noise features, with timing jitters < 20fs for GHz-rate pulse trains, and (iii) their extremely high frequency stability and precision, with target values below the Hz range. The new knowledge generated from FROST and the training of highly qualified personnel will contribute to enhance Canada's global competitiveness, especially in information and communication technology sectors.