ISBN 9783868539318

978-3-86853-931-8, Reihe Physik

Pascal Del'Haye
Optical Frequency Comb Generation in Monolithic Microresonators

207 Seiten, Dissertation Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (2011), Hardcover, B5

Zusammenfassung / Abstract

Optical spectroscopy has attracted attention of generations of scientists, starting with Fraunhofer's discovery of dark lines in the sun spectrum in 1814 followed by work of Kirchhoff and Bunsen in 1859, who explained these lines as absorption of light in atoms and molecules. Within the last decade, the invention of optical frequency combs has revolutionized the field of spectroscopy and paved the way for groundbreaking measurements at previously unattainable accuracy, which has been rewarded with the Nobel Prize in 2005. Meanwhile frequency combs have spread into a variety of research fields at fast pace and are used for precision spectroscopy, optical clocks, chemical sensing, distance measurements, astrophysical spectrometer calibration and many other applications.

This thesis presents an entirely novel approach for frequency comb generation based on nonlinear frequency conversion in micrometer sized optical resonators. Here, the comb generation process can be directly described in frequency domain as energy conserving interactions between four photons (four-photon mixing). This process is a result of extremely high light intensities that build up in microresonators with long photon storage times. The thesis is composed of four main parts that answer fundamental questions in the context of microresonator-based frequency comb generation as well as providing insights in the control and possible applications of this type of comb generators.