Vernier microcombs for high-frequency carrier envelope offset and repetition rate detection

Journal article, 2023

Recent developments in Kerr microcombs may pave the way to a future with fully stabilized ultralow size, weight, and power consumption (SWaP) frequency combs. Nevertheless, Kerr microcombs are still hindered by a band-width/repetition rate trade-off. That is, the octave bandwidth needed for self-referencing is typically realized only with similar to THz repetition rates beyond the range of standard commercial photodetectors. The carrier envelope offset fre-quency fCEO is often likewise too high for detection. Dual-comb techniques for the measurement of THz repetition rates have made exciting progress, but the fCEO detection problem remains largely unaddressed. In this work, utilizing a Vernier dual-comb configuration, we demonstrate simultaneous detection of the electronically divided similar to 900 GHz rep-etition rate and similar to 97 GHz carrier envelope offset frequency of an octave-spanning microcomb. This, in turn, could help usher optical atomic clocks, low-noise microwave generators, and optical frequency synthesizers into various real-world applications.Published by Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.