Flat Optical Frequency Comb Generator Based on Integrated Lithium Niobate Modulators

Abstract

Chip-scale electro-optic (EO) frequency combs are expected to play an essential role in future high-capacity optical communications systems and next-generation mobile communications. The application requires integrated EO frequency comb generators featuring good spectral flatness, high modulation bandwidth, low driving voltage and low insertion loss simultaneously. Here, we demonstrate a flat-top optical flat comb (OFC) generator based on high-performance lithium niobate on insulator modulators. The OFC generator shows a low on-chip loss (2.1 dB), a low driving voltage over a broad frequency range, and a large 3-dB EO bandwidth. Moreover, with consuming power of less than 2W, the presented device produces 13 lines with a power variation of less than 1.2 dB and a line spacing of 31 GHz which can further be extended to 67 GHz.