Electronic laser phase noise reduction

The first integrated wideband laser phase noise reduction scheme is presented where the laser phase noise is first detected using a photonic chip, processed using an electronic chip, and subtracted from the laser phase in a feed-forward manner. The proof-of-concept experiments on a commercially available 1553nm distributed feedback laser show linewidth reduction from 6MHz to 250kHz equivalent to 14dB phase noise improvement. The hybrid integration of the photonic and electronic chips enables dramatic power consumption and area reduction compared to bench-top designs. This feed-forward scheme performs wideband phase noise reduction independent of the light source and, as such, it is compatible with several types of lasers.