A fiber laser is stabilized using a Calcium Fluoride (CaF2) whispering-gallery-mode resonator. It is set up using a semiconductor optical amplifier as a gain medium. The resonator is critically coupled through prisms, and used as a filtering element to suppress the laser linewidth. Using the self-heterodyne beat technique the linewidth is determined to be 13 kHz. This implies an enhancement factor of 10^3 with respect to the passive cavity linewidth. The three-cornered hat method shows a stability of 10^(-11) after 10 mu s.
We demonstrate a narrow line, fiber loop laser using Erbium-doped fiber as the gain material, stabilized by using a microsphere as a transmissive frequency selective element. Stable lasing with a linewidth of 170 kHz is observed, limited by the experimental spectral resolution. A linear increase in output power and a red-shift of the lasing mode were also observed with increasing pump power. Its potential application is also discussed.
We utilize a high quality calcium fluoride whispering-gallery-mode resonator to stabilize a simple erbium doped fiber ring laser with an emission frequency of 196 THz (wavelenght 1530 nm) to a linewidth below 650 Hz. This corresponds to a relative stability of 3.3 x 10^(-12) over 16 mus. In order to characterize the linewidth we use two identical self-built lasers and a commercial laser to determine the individual lasing linewidth via the three-cornered hat method.
Whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonators are compelling optical devices, however they are nearly unexplored in the terahertz (THz) domain. In this letter, we report on THz WGMs in quartz glass bubble resonators with sub-wavelength wall thickness. An unprecedented study of both the amplitude and phase of THz WGMs is presented. The coherent THz frequency domain measurements are in excellent agreement with a simple analytical model and results from numerical simulations. A high finesse of 9 and a quality (Q) factor exceeding 440 at 0.47 THz are observed. Due to the large evanescent field the high Q-factor THz WGM bubble resonators can be used as a compact, highly sensitive sensor in the intriguing THz frequency range.
We have stabilized an external cavity diode laser to a whispering gallery mode resonator formed by a protrusion of a single-crystal magnesiumdifluoride cylinder. The cylinders compact dimensions (<1 cm^3) reduce the sensitivity to vibrations and simplify the stabilization of its temperature in a compact setup. In a comparison to an ultrastable laser used for precision metrology we determine a minimum Allan deviation of 20 Hz, corresponding to a relative Allan deviation of 6*10^-14, at an integration time of 100 ms. This level of instability is compatible with the limits imposed by fundamental fluctuations of the materials refractive index at room temperature.
We demonstrate for the first time natural phase matching for optical frequency doubling in a high-Q whispering gallery mode resonator made of Lithium Niobate. A conversion efficiency of 9% is achieved at 30 micro Watt in-coupled continuous wave pump power. The observed saturation pump power of 3.2 mW is almost two orders of magnitude lower than the state-of-the-art. This suggests an application of our frequency doubler as a source of non-classical light requiring only a low-power pump, which easily can be quantum noise limited. Our theoretical analysis of the three-wave mixing in a whispering gallery mode resonator provides the relative conversion efficiencies for frequency doubling in various modes.