DUAL-FREQUENCY OPTICAL SOURCE

摘要

A dual-frequency optical source comprises: (a) first and second pump laser sources arranged to generate optical pump power at respective first and second pump laser frequencies v pump1 and v pump2 ; and (b) an optical resonator characterized by a Brillouin shift frequency v B and a free spectral range that is substantially equal to an integer submultiple of the Brillouin shift frequency. Each one of the first and second pump laser sources is frequency-locked to a corresponding resonant optical mode of the optical resonator. First and second optical output signals of the dual-frequency optical reference source at respective first and second output frequencies v 1 =v pump1 -v B and v 2 =v pump2 -v B comprise stimulated Brillouin laser output generated by simultaneous optical pumping of the optical resonator by the first and second pump laser sources, respectively. An output difference frequency v 2-v 1 is greater than about 300 GHz.