US 2026/0135620 A1Published application

Coherent Modulation-Free Photonic Active (COMPACT) Stabilization Specification

AssigneeU.S. Government as represented by the Secretary of the Army

InventorJames P. Cahill

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Abstract

COherent Modulation-free Photonic ACTive (or “COMPACT”) Stabilization is described. The COMPACT stabilization provides significant improvement relative to a traditional Pound-Drever-Hall (PDH) technique, which may be used to lock light sources (such as lasers) to optical cavities (and/or locking optical cavities to light sources). COMPACT stabilization may include or otherwise utilize a second light source that functionally replaces an external microwave source of existing PDH stabilizers. COMPACT stabilization may provide noiseless gain to the locking error signal, thereby increasing the sensitivity and improving the performance of the stabilizer.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A coherent modulation-free photonic active (COMPACT) stabilizer comprising:

a first light source;
a first optical splitter that receives an output of the first light source and generates a set of optical output signals;
a first frequency dependent optical element (FDOE) which receives a first output signal of the first optical splitter and imparts a frequency-dependent change in phase and/or amplitude of the first output signal;
a second FDOE which receives a second output signal of the first optical splitter and imparts a frequency-dependent change in phase and/or amplitude of the second output signal;
a second light source;
and
a heterodyne optical phase detector that receives an output of the first FDOE, an output of the second FDOE, and an output of the second light source and generates an output signal that indicates a phase difference between the output of the first FDOE and the output of the second FDOE.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.