Spectrally Equalized Frequency Comb Generation in Multistage Parametric Mixer With Nonlinear Pulse Shaping

A novel approach to improve the flatness of wide-band parametric frequency combs is presented. The method relies on nonlinear pulse shaping prior to parametric mixing in a comb-generating device. The parametric comb is generated in a cavity-less multistage shock-wave mixer, using continuous-wave (CW) laser as comb seed. The pulse shaping is accomplished in a regenerative stage incorporating nonlinear optical/amplifying loop mirror (NOLM/NALM) and provides near-ideal seeds for spectrally equalized frequency comb generation in the output mixing stage. The new technique was implemented separately on two comb generators with a coarse (100 GHz) and dense (10 GHz) tone spacing. A 4 dB flatness over 100 nm is achieved with wide-pitched comb, while the fine-pitched device yielded 1500 tones and possessed sub-2 dB spectral flatness over 120 nm bandwidth.