A new technology for low cost, high performance ultrafast optical clocks

该NSERC项目致力于开发一种新技术的市场研究，该技术将以前所未有的速度实现高性能光钟的商业化。光学频率梳是一种能够以具有固定频率间隔的窄线(即颜色)组成的梳状光谱来发射光的装置。它们的引入为科学提供了强大的设备，能够测量光的频率，并创造出具有前所未有的精确度的超快时钟，揭示了天文学、地质学、生物学和许多其他领域的新科学。他们的重要性在2005年授予T·W·亨施和J·霍尔的诺贝尔奖中得到了突出的认可。采用满足当前电子平台要求的策略使这些光源小型化的可能性不仅将为超高速光通信和计量应用生产出负担得起的低功耗光源，而且可能给当前的微芯片技术带来更大的革命，促进当前电子微处理器的“光子过渡”。最近实现的利用小型化谐振器的光学频率梳光源代表着朝着这一方向的根本进步。然而，这些来源受到许多技术限制，使它们在实际应用中不切实际。在INRS-EMT获得了利用微谐振器实现光学钟的第一个成功，科学家们开发了一种用于高重复频率激光器的新的锁模原理，在光纤激光器腔中嵌入了一个非线性的高质量谐振器。这项技术非常经济和紧凑：微谐振器集成在使用与CMOS兼容的方法制造的芯片上，而激光器的其余部分是标准光纤，可以缠绕在直径约1厘米的线轴上。这一概念的简单性很可能导致性价比和可大规模重现的特征，这是成功商业化的先决条件，因此我们坚信，对这项创新技术进行市场研究是非常及时的，肯定有助于加强加拿大光子业在国际舞台上的影响力。

This NSERC project is concerned with the market study for the development of a novel technology that will allow the commercialization of high performance optical clocks having an unprecedented speed. Optical frequency combs are devices capable of emitting light with a comb spectrum composed by narrow lines (i.e. colours) with a fixed frequency spacing. Their introduction gave to Science powerful devices capable to measure the frequency of light and create ultrafast clocks characterized by unprecedented accuracy, unveiling new science in astronomy, geology, biology and many other fields. Their importance has been prominently recognized in the 2005 Nobel Award to T. W. Hänsch and J. Hall. The possibility to miniaturize these sources with strategies meeting the requirements of current electronic platforms would not only produce affordable and low consumption optical sources for ultrafast optical communication and metrological applications, but could bring a greater revolution in the current microchip technology, promoting a "photonic transition" of current electronic microprocessors. The recent realization of optical frequency combs sources exploiting miniaturized resonators represents a fundamental advance towards this direction. However, these sources suffer a number of technical limitations that make them unpractical for real applications. The first success in realizing an optical clock exploiting a micro-resonator has been obtained at INRS-EMT, where scientists developed a novel mode-locking principle for high repetition rate lasers, embedding a nonlinear high-quality resonator in a fibre laser cavity. This technology is extremely economical and compact: the micro-resonator is integrated on a chip made using CMOS-compatible methods, while the rest of the laser is a standard optical fiber that can be wound on a spool of about 1 cm in diameter. The simplicity of this concept may well lead to the cost performance and mass-reproducible characteristics that are prerequisite to successful commercialization, hence we strongly believe that a market study for this innovative technology is extremely timing and will certainly contribute to reinforce the impact of the Canadian Photonic Industry on the international scene.