Long-term Stabilization of Fiber Laser Using Phase-locking Technique with Ultra-low Phase Noise and Phase Drift

We review the conventional phase-locking technique in the long-term stabilization of the mode-locked fiber laser and investigate the phase noise limitation of the conventional technique. To break the limitation, we propose an improved phase-locking technique with an optic-microwave phase detector in achieving the ultra-low phase noise and phase drift. The mechanism and the theoretical model of the novel phase-locking technique are also discussed. The long-term stabilization experiments demonstrate that the improved technique can achieve the long-term stabilization for the MLFL with ultra-low phase noise and phase drift. The excellent locking performance of the improved phase-locking technique implies that this technique can be used to stabilize the mode-locked fiber laser with the highly stable H-master or optical clock without stability loss.