Ultra-low noise optical injection locking amplifier with AOM-based coherent detection scheme

Zitong Feng; Fei Yang; Xi Zhang; Dijun Chen; Fang Wei; Nan Cheng; Yanguang Sun; Youzhen Gui; Haiwen Cai

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-31381-x

Ultra-low noise optical injection locking amplifier with AOM-based coherent detection scheme

Sci Rep. 2018 Sep 3;8(1):13135. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-31381-x.

Authors

Zitong Feng^{1

2}, Fei Yang³, Xi Zhang^{1

2}, Dijun Chen¹, Fang Wei¹, Nan Cheng⁴, Yanguang Sun¹, Youzhen Gui⁴, Haiwen Cai⁵

Affiliations

¹ Shanghai Key Laboratory of All Solid-State Laser and Applied Techniques, Shanghai Institute of Optics and fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201800, China.
² University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
³ Shanghai Key Laboratory of All Solid-State Laser and Applied Techniques, Shanghai Institute of Optics and fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201800, China. fyang@siom.ac.cn.
⁴ Key Laboratory for Quantum Optics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai, 201800, China.
⁵ Shanghai Key Laboratory of All Solid-State Laser and Applied Techniques, Shanghai Institute of Optics and fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201800, China. hwcai@siom.ac.cn.

Abstract

A novel optical injection locking amplifier with acousto-optic modulator based phase modulation and a coherent detection scheme for optical frequency transfer applications is experimentally demonstrated in this study. A commercial distributed feedback diode laser is injection-locked to the resonant frequency of the optical signal with an optical fiber path length of hundreds of kilometers. This provides approximately 59 dB gain and ensures that the input carrier frequency fractional stability can be as good as 10^-20 at 1000 s. The amplifier was tested for the transfer of a commercial narrow-linewidth laser in a 180 km fiber link to a remote site with only a single amplification step. The transferred frequency at the remote end reached 10^-20 at 20000 s, which is suitable for optical frequency distribution and remote comparison between optical atomic clocks.