Optical frequency comb based on nonlinear spectral broadening of a phase modulated comb source driven by dual offset locked carriers

We demonstrate a versatile technique to generate a broadband optical frequency comb source in the C-band. This is accomplished by nonlinear spectral broadening of a phase modulated comb source driven by dual frequency offset locked carriers. The locking is achieved by setting up a heterodyne optical frequency locked loop to lock two phase modulated electro-optic 25 GHz frequency combs sourced from individual seed carriers offset by 100 GHz, to within 6.7 MHz of each other. We realize spectral broadening in highly nonlinear fiber after suitable amplification to obtain an equalized, nonlinearly broadened frequency comb. We obtain ∼86 lines in a 20 dB band spanning over 2 THz.