• Advanced Photonics Nexus
  • Vol. 2, Issue 2, 026006 (2023)
Wen Guan1、2、3, Ziping Li1, Shumin Wu1、2, Han Liu1、2, Xuhong Ma1、2, Yiran Zhao1、2, Chenjie Wang1、2, Binbin Liu1、2, Zhenzhen Zhang1, Juncheng Cao1、2、3, and Hua Li1、2、*
Author Affiliations
  • 1Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Key Laboratory of Terahertz Solid State Technology, Shanghai, China
  • 2University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, Beijing, China
  • 3ShanghaiTech University, School of Information Science and Technology, Shanghai, China
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    DOI: 10.1117/1.APN.2.2.026006 Cite this Article Set citation alerts
    Wen Guan, Ziping Li, Shumin Wu, Han Liu, Xuhong Ma, Yiran Zhao, Chenjie Wang, Binbin Liu, Zhenzhen Zhang, Juncheng Cao, Hua Li. Relative phase locking of a terahertz laser system configured with a frequency comb and a single-mode laser[J]. Advanced Photonics Nexus, 2023, 2(2): 026006 Copy Citation Text show less

    Abstract

    Stable operation is one of the most important requirements for a laser source for high-precision applications. Many efforts have been made to improve the stability of lasers by employing various techniques, e.g., electrical and/or optical injection and phase locking. However, these techniques normally involve complex experimental facilities. Therefore, an easy implementation of the stability evaluation of a laser is still challenging, especially for lasers emitting in the terahertz (THz) frequency range because the broadband photodetectors and mature locking techniques are limited. In this work, we propose a simple method, i.e., relative phase locking, to quickly evaluate the stability of THz lasers without a need of a THz local oscillator. The THz laser system consists of a THz quantum cascade laser (QCL) frequency comb and a single-mode QCL. Using the single-mode laser as a fast detector, heterodyne signals resulting from the beating between the single-mode laser and the comb laser are obtained. One of the heterodyne beating signals is selected and sent to a phase-locked loop (PLL) for implementing the relative phase locking. Two kinds of locks are performed by feeding the output error signal of the PLL, either to the comb laser or to the single-mode laser. By analyzing the current change and the corresponding frequency change of the PLL-controlled QCL in each phase-locking condition, we, in principle, are able to experimentally compare the stability of the emission frequency of the single-mode QCL (fs) and the carrier envelope offset frequency (fCEO) of the QCL comb. The experimental results reveal that the QCL comb with the repetition frequency injection locked demonstrates much higher stability than the single-mode laser. The work provides a simple heterodyne scheme for understanding the stability of THz lasers, which paves the way for the further locking of the lasers and their high-precision applications in the THz frequency range.
    fn=fMfs=fCEO+Mfrepfs,

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    fn=fnfRF1,

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    Δfn=ΔfCEO+MΔfrep+Δfs,

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    Δfn=ΔfCEO+MΔfrep+Δfs+ΔfRF1.

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    Δfn=Δfn=ΔfCEO+Δfs.

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    Δfn=ΔfCEO+Δfs=ΔfRF2,

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    ΔfsΔfCEO=ΔI1·r1.

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    ΔfCEOΔfs=ΔI2·r2,

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    Wen Guan, Ziping Li, Shumin Wu, Han Liu, Xuhong Ma, Yiran Zhao, Chenjie Wang, Binbin Liu, Zhenzhen Zhang, Juncheng Cao, Hua Li. Relative phase locking of a terahertz laser system configured with a frequency comb and a single-mode laser[J]. Advanced Photonics Nexus, 2023, 2(2): 026006
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