A laser phase and frequency noise measurement method by an unbalanced Michelson interferometer composed of a 3 × 3 optical fiber coupler is proposed. The relations and differences of the power spectral density (PSD) of differential phase and frequency fluctuation, PSD of instantaneous phase and frequency fluctuation, phase noise and linewidth are derived strictly and discussed carefully. The method obtains the noise features of a narrow linewidth laser conveniently without any specific assumptions or noise models. The technique is also used to characterize the noise features of a narrow linewidth external-cavity semiconductor laser, which confirms the correction and robustness of the method.

A simple and low-cost 1550 nm semiconductor laser with subkilohertz intrinsic linewidth is experimentally demonstrated. A commercial distributed feedback diode laser is self-injection locked to the resonance transmission peaks of a fiber Bragg grating Fabry-Perot cavity through a polarization-maintaining fiber ring with the optical path length of 4 m, with the laser frequency noise suppressed by over 70 dB in the Fourier frequency band from 5 Hz and 1 kHz. The laser features an intrinsic Lorentzian linewidth of 125 Hz as well as a relative intensity noise of <–142 dBc/Hz above 2 MHz, and provides over 0.8 nm quasi-continuous tunability, which is suitable for advanced applications requiring a narrow linewidth laser with ultralow frequency noise.

We propose a hybrid integrated self-injection locked (SIL) narrow linewidth laser with adjustable feedback intensity. An adjustable Sagnac loop reflector (ASLR) coupled to a high- Q micro-ring resonator is introduced to adjust and optimize the optical feedback intensity of the SIL laser. The experimental results show that the linewidth and tuning performance of the SIL laser are closely related to the optical feedback intensity. After optimizing the reflectivity of ASLR, more excellent frequency noise suppression capability and larger locking range can be obtained compared with the conventional SIL lasers with fixed feedback intensity. The intrinsic linewidth is reduced to 60 Hz, and the locking range without phase compensation is extended to 6.3 GHz. This work has important application value in the field of coherent detection and precision metrology.

Optical fiber links have proven their powerful ability to transfer the ultrastable clock signals over a national and continental metrological optical network. In this Letter, we propose and demonstrate a new scheme that time and frequency signals are modulated on the same laser wavelength with phase and intensity modulation by an independent electro-optic modulator, respectively. Different wavelengths are used in two opposite directions to prevent Rayleigh scattering. The noise changes caused by the fluctuations of the transfer links are actively canceled at the local site by optical delay lines. Radio frequency with 1 GHz and time signal with one pulse per second (1 PPS) are transmitted over 110 km fiber spools. The experimental results demonstrate that frequency instabilities of 1.7 E − 14 at 1 s and 5.9 E − 17 at 10 4 s and time interval transfer of 1 PPS signal with sub-ps stability after 1000 s are obtained. This novel scheme offers advantages with respect to reduce the channel in the fiber network, and can keep the time and frequency signal free from interference with each other.

A microwave photonic system which can simultaneously realize the functions of rapidly tunable Doppler frequency shift (DFS) and high fidelity storage of broadband RF signals is proposed and verified. Single-sideband carrier-suppression modulation combined with dual-AOM frequency shifting ensures large-range and fast-responding DFS. And time-gated semiconductor amplifier (SOA) based fiber delay loop can realize high-fidelity RF pulse storage with high extinction ratio switching and amplification characteristics of time-gated SOA. A spurious rejection ratio greater than 40 dB, tuning range of DFS greater than ± 3 MHz, response speed of DFS less than 30 ns, and high fidelity storage of 4 GHz-12 GHz RF signals with greater than 381 circulations (corresponding 80 us delay time) are realized by the proposed structure. The maximum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is 13.6 dB within 381 circulations. Based on the experimental data, the simulation results show that the delay time also could be extended to 10 times more.