Nonlinear Optics for Comb gEneration

NOICE

Funded by: Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale MAECI  
Calls: Accordo di cooperazione industriale, scientifica e tecnologica tra Italia ed Israele del 13 giugno 2000
Start date: 2017-01-01  End date: 2019-12-31
Total Budget: EUR 368.917,22  INO share of the total budget: EUR 300.417,22
Scientific manager: De Rosa Maurizio   and for INO is: De Rosa Maurizio

Organization/Institution/Company main assignee: CNR – Istituto Nazionale di Ottica (INO)

other Organization/Institution/Company involved:
University of Tel Avi

other INO’s people involved:
Borri Simone
Ricciardi Iolanda


Abstract: The NOICE Joint Laboratory project aims to reinforce the collaboration and establish a permanent partnership between INO-CNR and Tel Aviv University in the field of nonlinear optics, as declared in a recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (attached to the present proposal). The activities of the proposed Joint Laboratory are mainly focused on innovative coherent sources of optical frequency combs based on nonlinear processes, addressing the fundamental aspects of the underlying physics, and exploiting their potential as innovative sources for scientific and technological applications.
One of the ambitions of the project is the development and experimental testing of a theoretical framework, which lays the foundation for a deep comprehension of optical frequency comb generation in quadratic passive resonators and in quantum cascade lasers; equally important, providing a toolbox for fully designing and controlling the properties and performance of targeted miniaturized devices. The experimental activity will be devoted to the development of millimeter-scale monolithic resonators made of ferroelectric crystals, shaped as whisperinggallery mode resonators, and AlGaAs waveguides, both with engineered domain structures. A key feature for efficient production of combs is an appropriate design of resonating photonic structures which can optimize flatness, emission bandwidth, and phase coherence of generated combs. At the same time, quantum cascaded laser will be investigated as active systems that have already proven to be able to emit a frequency comb spectra. They will be characterized in terms of frequency stabilization and phase coherence and they will be tested for high resolution spectroscopical applications and metrological purposes.
The technology of combs can be used in spectrometers for food and biomedical analysis, and environmental monitoring over spectral ranges from the visible to the MIR. Frequency comb sources combine broad spectral coverage and exceptional resolution with data-acquisition times several orders of magnitude shorter than that of Fourier transform spectrometers, thereby enabling, e.g., investigations of transient chemical reactions or real-time industrial process control. Besides spectroscopic and environmental applications the development of the lowconsumption and multi-wavelength χ(2) combs devices is of paramount interest for the ICT industries, in view of the increasing needs for telecom and datacom coherent communication systems.

INO’s Experiments/Theoretical Study correlated:
Frequency Comb Generation in Quadratic Media
Optical frequency comb generation in the mid IR