Technologies for Integrated Photonic Oscillators

This project will support ongoing efforts to bring the exciting field of optical frequency division to the form factor of an integrated chip. Optical frequency division uses optical frequency combs (OFCs) to divide the frequency of an optical frequency reference (such as an optical resonator or optical atomic transition) to a microwave output signal, whose frequency is usable in conventional circuits. One of the enduring challenges in bringing this technology to the chip scale is generating on-chip OFCs with repetition rates that are sufficiently small (e.g., <40 GHz) to work with conventional electronics while simultaneously minimizing the required power (i.e., optical power in the case of microresonator OFCs and RF power in the case of electro-optic modulator OFCs). In this project, the student will contribute towards research in generating microwaves with frequencies <40 GHz using on-chip OFCs that require practical amounts of power. This project may involve characterizing OFC devices, building fiber-optic characterization circuits, making precision frequency noise measurements, and other related tasks. The opportunity is part of the Army Research Laboratory Research Associateship Program (ARL-RAP), designed to significantly increase the involvement of creative and highly trained scientists and engineers from academia and industry in scientific and technical areas of interest and relevance to the Army.