Journal Article

Octave spanning operation of visible to SWIR integrated coil-stabilized Brillouin lasers

Chauhan, Nitesh, Song, Meiting, Niffenegger, Robert J., Liu, Kaikai, Caron, Chris, Isichenko, Andrei, Harrington, Mark W., Hunter, Andrew S., Montifiore, Nick, Blumenthal, Daniel J.

2026

Overview

Narrow linewidth stabilized lasers are central to precision applications that operate across the visible to short-wave infrared wavelengths, including optical clocks, quantum sensing and computing, ultra-low noise microwave generation, and fiber sensing. Today, these spectrally pure sources are realized using multiple external cavity tabletop lasers locked to bulk-optic free-space reference cavities. Integration of this technology will enable portable precision applications with improved reliability and robustness. Here, we report wavelength-flexible design and operation, over more than an octave span, of an integrated coil-resonator-stabilized Brillouin laser architecture. Leveraging a versatile two-stage noise reduction approach, we achieve low linewidths and high stability with chip-scale laser designs based on the ultra-low-loss, CMOS-compatible silicon nitride platform. We report operation at 674 and 698 nm for applications to strontium neutral and trapped-ion clocks, quantum sensing and computing, and at 1550 nm for applications to fiber sensing and ultra-low phase noise microwave generation. Over this range we demonstrate frequency noise reduction from 1 to 10 MHz resulting in 1.0–17 Hz fundamental and 181–630 Hz integral linewidths and an Allan deviation of 6.5 × 10 −13 at 1 ms for 674 nm, 6.0 × 10 −13 at 15 ms for 698 nm, and 2.6 × 10 −13 at 15 ms for 1550 nm. This work demonstrates the lowest fundamental and integral linewidths and highest stability achieved to date for stabilized Brillouin lasers with integrated coil-resonator references, with over an order of magnitude improvement in the visible wavelength range. These results unlock the potential of integrated, ultra-low-phase-noise stabilized lasers for precision applications and further integration in systems-on-chip solutions.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Springer Nature B.V,Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: 639/624/1020 / 639/766/1130/2799 / Lasers / Microwaves / Noise reduction / Optical and Electronic Materials / Optical Devices / Optics / Photonics / Physics / Physics and Astronomy / RF and Optical Engineering / Silicon nitride / Strontium