Repetition rate multiplication control of micro-combs assisted by perfect temporal Talbot effect

Abstract

Controllable repetition rate multiplication of micro-combs is demonstrated based on the perfect temporal Talbot effect. With third-order-dispersion being eliminated, the repetition rates of micro-combs can be precisely controlled with strong reconfigurability and compatibility. First, we show the fifth multiplication of the repetition rate with unaffected pulse width and shape in both simulation and experiment. By slightly changing fiber lengths, the repetition rate of a micro-comb is precisely increased by 10 times, 15 times, and 20 times, reaching even 980 GHz. The method is verified to be compatible with perfect crystal solitons in repetition rate multiplication. Combined together, larger repetition rates can be obtained. Besides, the perfect temporal Talbot effect can efficiently reduce both timing jitter and amplitude noise of input pulses, demonstrating the stable generation of high-quality pulses with flexible and high repetition rates. Furthermore, our scheme can avoid the trade-off between acquisition speed and temporal resolution in dual-comb synchronous optical sampling, which is quite useful for the ultrafast detection of transient response in unstable samples. This demonstration will lead to the possible realization of an integrated and flexible repetition rate multiplexer for soliton micro-combs and further promote the development of dual-comb applications and future terahertz science.