Attosecond-level synchronisation of chip-integrated oscillators

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Ulanov, Alexander E., Ruhnke, Bastian, Sharkawy, Theia El, Wildi, Thibault, Şafak, Kemal, Kärtner, Franz, Herr, Tobias
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Ulanov, Alexander E.
Ruhnke, Bastian
Sharkawy, Theia El
Wildi, Thibault
Şafak, Kemal
Kärtner, Franz
Herr, Tobias
author_facet Ulanov, Alexander E.
Ruhnke, Bastian
Sharkawy, Theia El
Wildi, Thibault
Şafak, Kemal
Kärtner, Franz
Herr, Tobias
contents Synchronised laser oscillators are essential for probing the fastest processes in chemistry, materials science, and biology down to atto-second timescales. Tight synchronisation is also crucial at scientific facilities such as free-electron lasers or radio-telescopes, and increasingly relevant to communication and information technologies in multi-node networks. Current synchronisation approaches based on mode-locked lasers achieve the required performance, but their complexity, cost, and size hinder deployment in multi-node networks. Here, we demonstrate attosecond-level synchronisation between chip-integrated microresonator soliton oscillators operating at either 25 or 300 GHz pulse repetition rate. For synchronisation, each oscillator receives over fibre a pair of continuous-wave lasers as a two-tone timing reference. The lasers power the microcombs and Kerr-nonlinear synchronisation results in integrated relative timing jitter below 400 as (1 kHz to 1 MHz), without any active stabilisation. This approach enables scalable precision timing for large facilities, data centres, disaggregated computing, navigation, and quantum networks; ultimately, it may lead to chip-integrated attosecond photonics.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_11630
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Attosecond-level synchronisation of chip-integrated oscillators
Ulanov, Alexander E.
Ruhnke, Bastian
Sharkawy, Theia El
Wildi, Thibault
Şafak, Kemal
Kärtner, Franz
Herr, Tobias
Optics
Synchronised laser oscillators are essential for probing the fastest processes in chemistry, materials science, and biology down to atto-second timescales. Tight synchronisation is also crucial at scientific facilities such as free-electron lasers or radio-telescopes, and increasingly relevant to communication and information technologies in multi-node networks. Current synchronisation approaches based on mode-locked lasers achieve the required performance, but their complexity, cost, and size hinder deployment in multi-node networks. Here, we demonstrate attosecond-level synchronisation between chip-integrated microresonator soliton oscillators operating at either 25 or 300 GHz pulse repetition rate. For synchronisation, each oscillator receives over fibre a pair of continuous-wave lasers as a two-tone timing reference. The lasers power the microcombs and Kerr-nonlinear synchronisation results in integrated relative timing jitter below 400 as (1 kHz to 1 MHz), without any active stabilisation. This approach enables scalable precision timing for large facilities, data centres, disaggregated computing, navigation, and quantum networks; ultimately, it may lead to chip-integrated attosecond photonics.
title Attosecond-level synchronisation of chip-integrated oscillators
topic Optics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.11630