Attosecond timing jitter in millimeter waves via Kerr optical frequency division

Attosecond timing jitter in millimeter waves via Kerr optical frequency division | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Attosecond timing jitter in millimeter waves via Kerr optical frequency division Antoine Rolland, Scott Egbert, Brendan Heffernan, James Greenberg, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8902301/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Millimeter-wave oscillators are essential for communication, radar, spectroscopy, and emerging photonic-electronic systems, yet their spectral purity remains constrained by noise processes intrinsic to direct generation at the carrier frequency. Here we demonstrate a fundamentally different approach that circumvents these limits by optically dividing a multi-terahertz reference to the millimeter-wave domain using Kerr soliton dynamics. A 3.3 THz dual-wavelength Brillouin laser injection-locks a chip-scale Kerr microcomb, enforcing exact optical frequency division to a 300 GHz repetition rate without electronic multiplication or feedback control. The resulting oscillator enters a previously inaccessible noise regime, exhibiting single-sideband phase noise of -152dBc/Hz at a 1 MHz offset, corresponding to an unprecedented timing noise of 18 zs.Hz^{-1/2} for a directly measured photodetected microwave or millimeter-wave signal. Integration of the measured spectrum yields an rms timing jitter of 135 attoseconds from 1 kHz to 1 MHz. To directly resolve this performance, we implement cross-correlation phase-noise metrology at 300 GHz using independent photonic local oscillators. These results establish Kerr optical frequency division as a general and scalable route to millimeter-wave and sub-terahertz carriers whose coherence is no longer constrained by direct-generation limits, opening a new operating regime for photonic oscillators. Physical sciences/Optics and photonics/Other photonics/Frequency combs Physical sciences/Optics and photonics/Applied optics/Microwave photonics optical frequency combs phase noise metrology microcombs non linear optics Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files KOFDSM.pdf Supplementary Information: Attosecond timing jitter in millimeter waves via Kerr optical frequency division Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8902301","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":593353773,"identity":"3f3dafb5-5aff-48c7-be32-992ec95fa7eb","order_by":0,"name":"Antoine 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