Computer science

Optics

Quantum mechanics

Telecommunications

Soliton

Coherence (philosophical gambling strategy)

Frequency comb

Physics

Nonlinear system

Laser

Nature Communications

Dissipative Kerr soliton microcombs have been recognized as a promising multi-wavelength laser source for fiber optical communications, as their comb lines possess frequency and phase stability far beyond the independent lasers. Especially, for coherent optical communications, a highly beneficial but rarely explored target is to re-generate a Kerr soliton microcomb as the receiver local oscillators that conserve the frequency and phase property of the incoming data carriers, so that to enable coherent detection with minimized optical and electrical compensations. Here, via pump laser conveying and two-point locking, we implement re-generation of a Kerr soliton microcomb that faithfully clones the frequency and phase of another microcomb sent from 50 km away. Moreover, by using the coherence-cloned soliton microcombs as carriers and local oscillators, we demonstrate terabit coherent data interconnect, wherein traditional digital processes for frequency offset estimation are totally dispensed with, and carrier ...

Coherent optical communications using coherence-cloned Kerr soliton microcombs