Hundred megahertz spectral bandwith, passively mode-locked laser (Phase I)

目前的创新计划旨在建立、研究和改进一个完全保持偏振的激光器原型，允许无啁啾长光脉冲（>500 ps）的被动锁模，与低功耗需求兼容。锁模激光器，辐射脉冲相干光，构成了从电信、光谱学、计量学到量子光学等各种应用的基础。虽然已经证明了许多不同的锁模技术，但没有一种技术能够产生具有傅里叶限制带宽（在兆赫频谱带宽范围内）的纳秒脉冲，这些特性对于诸如分子的有效激发甚至电信网络中的多路复用都是必需的。事实上，我们目前基于被动锁模方案的发明实际上解决了主动锁模技术的固有带宽和复杂性限制，同时将基础设置为完全集成的系统（即转置到片上CMOS兼容架构）。我们的激光方案基于在非线性放大环镜内使用非线性介质（即微环谐振器），从而减少了通过非线性相移实现锁模所需的功率，同时，作为超锐利滤波器，将脉冲激光的带宽限制在创纪录的低105MHz，重复率为9.5 MHz。此外，这种方案提供了从脉冲激发直接产生量子相关光子对的可能性，这是量子光学领域发展的一个关键特征。然后，我们的项目将专注于实现商业生产流程，以构建完全基于低成本和cmos兼容组件的激光原型。我们的锁模激光方案已经引起了制造电信波长激光系统的公司以及用于量子光学领域的光子系统经销商的极大兴趣。我们打算推动我们发明的发展，目的是增加我们知识产权的价值，并扩大对我们技术感兴趣的潜在客户的数量。

The current Idea to Innovation proposal aims to build, investigate and improve a fully polarization maintaining laser prototype allowing for passive mode-locking of unchirped long light pulses (>500 ps), compatible with low power demands. Mode-locked lasers, radiating pulsed coherent light, form the foundation for various applications ranging from telecommunications, spectroscopy, metrology, to quantum optics. While many different mode-locking techniques have been demonstrate, none of them managed to generate nanosecond pulses with Fourier-limited bandwidth (in the megahertz spectral bandwidth range), characteristics that are required for, e.g., the efficient excitation of molecules or even multiplexing in telecommunication networks. Indeed, our present invention based on a passive mode-locking scheme actually addresses the intrinsic bandwidth and complexity limitations of active mode-locking techniques while setting the base toward a fully integrated system (i.e. transposed to an on-chip CMOS compatible architecture). Our laser scheme is based on the use of a nonlinear medium (i.e. a micro-ring resonator) within a nonlinear amplifying loop mirror, thus offering a reduction of the amount of power required to achieve mode-locking by a nonlinear phase shift, while acting, at the same time, as an ultra-sharp filter limiting the bandwidth of the pulsed laser to a record low 105MHz at a repetition rate of 9.5 MHz. Furthermore, such a scheme present the possibility of generating directly quantum correlated photon pairs from a pulsed excitation, a crucial characteristic for developments in the field of quantum optics. Our project will then focus on the implementation of commercial production processes to build a laser prototype fully based on low-cost and CMOS-compatible components. Our mode-locking laser scheme has already raised significant interest in companies that manufacture laser systems at telecom wavelengths, as well as resellers of photonic systems for applications in the field of quantum optics. We intend to push forward the development of our invention with the aim to increase the value of our intellectual property and enlarge the number of potential customers interested in our technology.