Synchronization of a Silica Microcomb to a Mode-locked Laser with a Fractional Optoelectronic Phase-locked Loop

Abstract

Ultralow-noise soliton pulse generation over a wider Fourier frequency range is highly desirable for many high-precision applications. Here, we realize a low-phase-noise soliton pulse generation by trans-ferring the low phase noise of a mode-locked laser to a silica microcomb. A 21.956-GHz and a 9.9167-GHz Kerr soliton combs are synchronized to a 2-GHz and a 2.5-GHz mode-locked laser through a fractional optoelectronic phase-locked loop, respectively. The phase noise of the microcomb was suppressed by up to ~40 dB at 1-Hz Fourier frequency. This result provides a simple method for low-phase-noise soliton pulse generation, thereby facilitating extensive applications.