DOI: 10.1063/5.0337209 ISSN: 0003-6951

Compact Kerr comb based on fiber Fabry–Pérot microresonator with few-GHz repetition rate

Xinyi Chen, Han Yin, Zetong Li, Yuzhe Zhang, Tinghao Zhang, Siya Meng, Chenyang Shi, Yongwei Shi, Yingying Ji, Chenye Qin, Kunpeng Jia, Wei Liang, Zhenlin Wang, Shining Zhu, Zhenda Xie

Optical frequency combs with repetition rates in the 1–10 GHz range are critical for precision spectroscopy and low-noise microwave synthesis, because their densely packed comb lines bridge high-resolution frequency calibration with mature radio frequency electronics. Generating low-noise Kerr frequency combs in this regime within a compact package remains challenging. Here, we address this challenge using a few-mode fiber Fabry–Pérot resonator (FM-FFPR) with a quality factor Q up to 4.0 × 109, packaged within a compact footprint of 85 × 90 × 25 mm3. Self-injection locking of a distributed feedback laser diode to the FM-FFPR narrows the pump linewidth and enables stable soliton generation at a repetition rate of 1.7 GHz. The repetition rate phase noise closely approaches the quantum noise limit, reaching −105 dBc/Hz at 100 Hz offset, with an intrinsic integrated timing jitter of 6.7 fs (100 Hz–10 MHz) and an Allan deviation below 3 × 10−11 at 1 s averaging time. These results establish the FM-FFPR microcomb as a viable platform for compact, low-noise optical frequency comb systems at few-GHz repetition rates, with potential applications spanning photonic microwave generation, dual-comb measurement, and precision sensing.

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