Abstract

A new scheme of heterodyning facilitated by electro-optic modulator (EOM) is used to characterize the Allan deviation and phase noise of the beat note generated using different pairs of highly coherent lasers. Use of EOM greatly expands optical frequency difference range between the paired lasers suitable for heterodyning. Experimentally demonstrated that sensitivity of optical time-domain reflectometer is mostly determined by the instantaneous linewidth of the probing laser. Observed laser frequency linear drift for all tested lasers was found to be harmless at 1 kHz probing rate. Demonstrated technique can be used to qualify lasers for phase-sensitive optical distributed sensing applications.

Unveiling delay-time-resolved phase noise statistics of narrow-linewidth laser via coherent optical time domain reflectometry

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Narrow-linewidth swept laser phase reconstruction and noise measurement technology and its applications

Xi Zhang, Fei Yang, Zitong Feng, Fang Wei, Haiwen Cai, and Ronghui Qu
Opt. Express 26(25) 32958-32970 (2018)