Towards an Integrated Optic Phase-Locked Oscillator

Michael R. Watts, Jungwon Kim, Franz X. Kaertner, Anthony L. Lentine, and William A. Zortman

Abstract:	A recent experiment, performed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has demonstrated that by locking a microwave oscillator to an optical pulse train from a modelocked laser, exceptional timing stability can be achieved. In the experiment, a 10.225-GHz microwave oscillator was locked to an optical phase detection apparatus consisting of a modelocked laser, a Sagnac interferometer, and an optical phase modulator. A relative out-of-loop timing jitter of 6.8 fs rms was measured between the locked oscillator and the optical pulse train over a 1-MHz bandwidth and a 10-hour integration period, corresponding to a stability of 1.9×10-19. Here, we consider the potential for an integrated version of this optical phase-locked oscillator. Detailed analysis of the components required for integration is used to estimate the timing performance of the integrated optic phase-locked oscillator. Initial estimates indicate potential for a single-sideband phase noise level of -153 dBc/Hz and corresponding jitter level of ~1 fs across a 10-MHz loop bandwidth. While this work is still in the design stages, if successful, the result will be a compact and low-power oscillator with exceptional phase noise and timing stability that can be applied across many applications including RADAR, global positioning, and communications systems.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 40th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting December 1 - 4, 2008 Hyatt Regency Reston Town Center Reston, Virginia
Pages:	147 - 156
Cite this article:	Watts, Michael R., Kim, Jungwon, Kaertner, Franz X., Lentine, Anthony L., Zortman, William A., "Towards an Integrated Optic Phase-Locked Oscillator," Proceedings of the 40th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting, Reston, Virginia, December 2008, pp. 147-156.
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