Modeling Optical Time and Frequency Generation and Transfer Systems

Abstract

We describe the results of a project to carry out theoretical and computational modeling of frequency comb sources in support of experimental efforts in the DARPA PULSE program. This work had two thrusts. The first was to model the SESAM fiber lasers that were used by the Newbury team at NIST to carry out free-space frequency transfer experiments. The second was to model frequency comb generation in microresonators, focusing on solitons and cnoidal waves. We developed a unique set of computational algorithms based on dynamical systems theory that allowed us to rapidly and unambiguously determine the stability and noise performance of the lasers and microresonators. We applied these tools to explain the performance limitations and optimize the performance of the SESAM lasers. We also used these tools to explain in part the difficulty in accessing solitons and to find a deterministic approach for generating large-bandwidth soliton trains, as a special limit of cnoidal waves.