Clocks, Combs and Optical Arbitrary Waveforms

Erich P. Ippen
MIT

Monday, April 21, 2008 at 1:00PM

54-134 Engineering IV Building
Refreshments Served

Abstract: This seminar will describe strategy and progress towards the generation of optical arbitrary waveforms based on femtosecond laser frequency combs. With octave-spanning spectra we lock a laser’s optical frequencies to multiples of the repetition rate and then further to a compact methane-stabilized HeNe laser. The goal is to achieve this with the multi-gigahertz comb frequency spacing needed to demultiplex the individual comb lines in an integrated photonic circuit so that each line can be modulated independently at the laser repetition rate. Recent results obtained with both Ti:sapphire and fiber laser systems will be presented. Together these systems promise to provide referenced and stabilized frequency combs extending from 500nm to 2mm.

Biography: Erich Ippen received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 1968 and worked at Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, NJ from 1968 to 1980 before joining the faculty of MIT where he is now the Elihu Thomson Professor of Electrical Engineering and Professor of Physics. Well known for his research accomplishments in the area of ultrafast optics, he is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. His current research interests include femtosecond optical clock and arbitrary waveform technologies, ultrafast studies of materials and devices, integrated microphotonics and ultrashort-pulse fiber devices.