11 March 2022
Ewelina Obrzud, winnner of the MERAC Prize
Congratulations to Ewelina Obrzud, winner of the prestigious European Astronomical Society's MERAC Prize for her amazing work on new instrumental technologies!...
June 1, 2018
EFTF 2018 Young Scientist Award
CSEM scientist Dr. Tobias Herr has been honored with the European Frequency and Time Forum (EFTF) Young Scientist Award at the 2018 event held in Turin, Italy. This prize recognizes a personal contribution that demonstrates a high degree of initiative and creativity, and leads to already established or foreseeable outstanding advances in the field of time and frequency metrology. The award is reserved for scientists under the age of 40.
Microresonator frequency combs comprise thousands of optical lines that are equally spaced by an ultra-high repetition rate frequency of 10-100 GHz. The generation of an optical frequency comb is achieved by laser-pumping a high-Q Kerr non-linear resonator; that is, by creating a vast series of equidistant comb lines by means of nonlinear parametric conversion. Several microresonator platforms exist, such as whispering-gallery mode resonators made of crystalline materials, photonics-integrated chips and recently demonstrated fiber-based Fabry-Pérot resonators. The tremendous potential of such compact microresonator-based frequency combs has been widely recognized.
Among the most promising applications of microresonator-based comb technology are:
- Optical channel-generation for broadband; coherent optical telecommunications
- Generation of ultra-low-noise microwave signals
- Rapid, broadband optical spectroscopy, where the resolvable comb lines allow for broadband and real-time detection of trace-gas sensing, astronomical spectrometer calibration or dual-frequency comb spectroscopy with ultra-high acquisition rates (all without moving parts)
- Optical clockwork for frequency metrology and for next-generation atomic clocks
Other applications such as rapid distance measurements, ultra-fast analog-to-digital conversion and quantum light sources are also actively being pursued.
Publications
- Temporal solitons in microresonators driven by optical pulses, E. Obrzud, S. Lecomte, T. Herr. Nature Photonics, 11, 600–607 (2017)
- Book chapter in Nonlinear optical cavity dynamics: from microresonators to fiber lasers, T. Herr, M.L. Gorodetsky, T. J. Kippenberg. Wiley, ISBN: 978-3-527-41332-4 (2016)
- Photonic chip based optical frequency comb using soliton induced Cherenkov radiation, V. Brasch, M. Geiselmann, T. Herr, G. Lihachev, M.H.P. Pfeiffer, M.L. Gorodetsky, T.J. Kippenberg. Science, 351, 6271, 357-360 (2015)
- Mode spectrum and temporal soliton formation in optical microresonators, T. Herr, V. Brasch, J.D. Jost, I. Mirgorodskiy, G. Lihachev, M.L. Gorodetsky, T.J. Kippenberg. Physical Review Letters, 113, 123901 (2014)
- Temporal solitons in optical microresonators, T. Herr, V. Brasch, J.D. Jost, C. Y. Wang, N.M. Kondratiev, M.L. Gorodetsky, T.J. Kippenberg. Nature Photonics, 8, 145-152 (2014)
- Universal dynamics and noise of Kerr-frequency combs in microresonators, T. Herr, K. Hartinger, J. Riemensberger, C.Y. Wang, E. Gavartin, R. Holzwarth, M.L. Gorodetsky, T.J. Kippenberg. Nature Photonics, 6, 480-487 (2012)
