Chinese Optics Letters, Volume. 24, Issue 1, (2026)
10⁻20-Level Long-Term Relative Frequency Instability in Multi-Branch Optical Frequency Comb Enabled by Fiber Noise Cancellation [Early Posting]
We demonstrated an all-polarization-maintaining (PM), multi-branch optical frequency comb based on an all-fiber configuration. To achieve fiber noise cancellation, we aligned the beat note of the out-of-loop branch with that of the in-loop branch by phase-locking both branches to a common 1550 nm ultra-stable laser. To further assess the out-of-loop frequency instability of the constructed fiber comb, we heterodyned it with another quasi-identical fiber comb. Thanks to effective fiber noise cancellation and a small difference in out-of-loop fiber lengths, the frequency instability of a single comb reached an exceptional level of 2.26×10−17 at 1 s and 8.4×10−20 at 4000 s.