Parametrically driven Kerr cavity solitons

Abstract

Temporal cavity solitons are optical pulses that propagate indefinitely in nonlinear resonators [1][2][3]. They are currently attracting a lot of attention, both for their many potential applications and for their connection to other fields of science. Cavity solitons are phase locked to a driving laser. This is what distinguishes them from laser dissipative solitons [4] and the main reason why they are excellent candidates for precision applications such as optical atomic clocks [5]. To date, the focus has been on driving Kerr solitons close to their carrier frequency, in which case a single stable localised solution exists for fixed parameters [1]. Here we experimentally demonstrate, for the first time, Kerr cavity solitons excitation around twice their carrier frequency. In that configuration, called parametric driving, two solitons of opposite phase may coexist [6]. We use a fibre resonator that incorporates a quadratically nonlinear section and excite stable solitons by scanning the driving frequency. Our experimental results are in excellent agreement with a seminal amplitude equation [7], highlighting connections to hydrodynamic [8, 9] and mechanical systems [10], amongst others [11]. Furthermore, we experimentally confirm that two different phase-locked solitons may be simultaneously excited and harness this multiplicity to generate a string of random bits, thereby extending the pool of applications of Kerr resonators to random number generators [12] and Ising machines [13].

Driven-dissipative time crystalline phases in a two-mode bosonic system with Kerr nonlinearity

“…Computational limitations do not allow us to probe the system at sufficiently large excitation number N . At this stage, experimental investigations, like in [7,8,10,11] are the natural step to follow for the detailed investigation of the the non-equilibrium phase transitions.…”

“…Realistic settings of quantum experiments require considering not only sizable nonlinear effects, but also an interplay between external driving and dissipation caused by the fundamentally open nature of such systems. A system of paramount importance is a driven-dissipative model of bosonic modes with the Kerr nonlinearity [7][8][9][10][11]. For example, a qubit encoded in quantum harmonic oscillators [12] can be made stable against environment-induced decay using an interplay between Kerr-type interactions and squeezing [13][14][15].…”

Break the efficiency limitations of dissipative Kerr soliton using nonlinear couplers

“…The proposed nonlinear coupler to break the efficiency limitations of micro-soliton generation is experimentally feasible for a variety of integrated platforms made by different materials. Firstly, the efficient SHG and OPO have been experimentally demonstrated in integrated AlN and LN microresonators [39,40,43], as well as their roles in generating frequency combs [44][45][46]. Here, a conversion efficiency over 90% is predicted for AlN [Fig.…”

Parametrically-driven temporal cavity solitons in a bichromatically-driven pure Kerr resonator

“…Interestingly, recent experiments have revealed that qualitatively different types of temporal CSs -that do not share the aforementioned characteristics -can exist in resonators that display a quadratic nonlinearity in addition to a Kerr-type nonlinearity. In particular, Englebert et al have experimentally demonstrated that an all-fibre optical parametric oscillator driven at 2ω 0 can support CSs at ω 0 [13]; in this configuration, the solitons are parametrically-driven through the quadratic down-conversion of the externally-injected field. The CSs that result from such parametric driving display a hyperbolic secant amplitude profile akin to those manifesting themselves in monochromatically-driven Kerr-only resonators, but the two types of solitons nonetheless exhibit significant differences.…”

“…The CSs that result from such parametric driving display a hyperbolic secant amplitude profile akin to those manifesting themselves in monochromatically-driven Kerr-only resonators, but the two types of solitons nonetheless exhibit significant differences. Importantly, parametrically-driven CSs are spectrally separated from the driving frequency (ω 0 versus 2ω 0 in the configuration used in [13]), and they come in two distinct states with opposite phases. These traits render parametrically-driven CSs of interest for an altogether new range of applications.…”