Abstract

There is a vast interest in multi-wavelength light sources which can find applications in optical communications [1], and photonic generation of millimetre and terahertz signals [2]. For such applications highly coherent and stable optical comb sources, with uniform power distribution among frequency components are desirable. Conventional comb sources are mainly based on mode-locked semiconductor and fibre lasers. Both are penalized by fixed free spectral range (FSR), and complexity of the epitaxial growth in the first case, and stability issues due to long cavity lengths in the latter. Another technique, which offers the advantage of tuneable FSR, entails the use of electro-optic modulators. This however, requires the use of expensive dual drive modulators [3], or a series of cascaded modulators [4], in order to achieve a broad and relatively flat comb.

© 2011 Optical Society of America