Temporal tweezing of light through the trapping and manipulation of temporal cavity solitons

Jang, Jae K.; Erkintalo, Miro; Coen, Stéphane; Murdoch, Stuart G.

doi:10.1038/ncomms8370

Cited by 183 publications

(168 citation statements)

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“…Additionally, our work and other theoretical work 34,36 suggests that it may be possible to use a mode crossing or a bichromatic pump to generate a seed crystal for creating complex, custom soliton trains, which could be populated through the use of a pulsed pump laser. Potential applications of storage and manipulation of solitons in nonlinear resonators have attracted considerable interest [13][14][15][16]26,40 , and soliton crystals in monolithic Kerr resonators present a possible mechanism for chip-integrated optical data storage and manipulation which exploits the enormous degeneracy of soliton crystal configuration space and is stable to perturbations and local interactions. Finally, the mechanism we present here for soliton-soliton interactions has implications for periodic systems in any context in which nonlinearity and dispersion or diffraction contribute significantly to the dynamics.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Formally equivalent to monolithic Kerr resonators are lower repetition-rate fiber-loop resonators, where generation and control of soliton ensembles has recently been explored experimentally [13][14][15][16] . These experiments were preceded by theoretical studies of soliton interactions and ensembles of solitons in quasi-CW-pumped fiber-ring resonators [17][18][19] , where an analogy between soliton ensembles and the states of matter was introduced.…”

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Soliton crystals in Kerr resonators

et al. 2017

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Strongly interacting solitons confined to an optical resonator would offer unique capabilities for experiments in communication, computation, and sensing with light. Here we report on the discovery of soliton crystals in monolithic Kerr microresonators-spontaneously and collectively ordered ensembles of co-propagating solitons whose interactions discretize their allowed temporal separations. We unambiguously identify and characterize soliton crystals through analysis of their 'fingerprint' optical spectra, which arise from spectral interference between the solitons. We identify a rich space of soliton crystals exhibiting crystallographic defects, and time-domain measurements directly confirm our inference of their crystal structure. The crystallization we observe is explained by long-range soliton interactions mediated by resonator mode degeneracies, and we probe the qualitative difference between soliton crystals and a soliton liquid that forms in the absence of these interactions. Our work explores the rich physics of monolithic Kerr resonators in a new regime of dense soliton occupation and offers a way to greatly increase the efficiency of Kerr combs; further, the extreme degeneracy of the configuration space of soliton crystals suggests an implementation for a robust on-chip optical buffer.Optical solitons have recently found a new realization in frequency combs generated in passive, monolithic Kerrnonlinear resonators 1 (microcombs). These microcombs are a major step forward in frequency-comb technology 2 because they enable generation of combs in platforms having low size, weight, and power requirements. When a continuous-wave pump laser is coupled into a whispering-gallery mode of a high-Q Kerr resonator, broad optical spectra are generated through cascaded four-wave mixing. With appropriate power and laser-resonator frequency detuning, the resulting fields modelock to form circulating dissipative Kerr-cavity solitons [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] . These solitons are pulsed excitations atop a non-zero continuous wave background, and have robust deterministic properties that may be tailored through resonator design 11,12 and tuned in real-time through manipulation of the pump laser. Microcombs based on solitons extend the range of accessible comb repetition rates and provide a route towards chip-integrated self-referenced comb technology.Single solitons and ensembles of several co-propagating solitons have been reported in Kerr resonators constructed from a variety of crystalline and amorphous materials 3-7 , with repetition rates ranging from 22 GHz 6 to 1 THz 7 . Formally equivalent to monolithic Kerr resonators are lower repetition-rate fiber-loop resonators, where generation and control of soliton ensembles has recently been explored experimentally [13][14][15][16] . These experiments were preceded by theoretical studies of soliton interactions and ensembles of solitons in quasi-CW-pumped fiber-ring resonators [17][18][19] , where an analogy between soliton ensembles and the states of matter was introduc...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Soliton crystals in Kerr resonators

et al. 2017

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“…However, while the mode dispersion profile Δω − μ is determined entirely by the resonator geometry and the dielectric material properties, the soliton repetition rate ω r depends upon frequency offsets between the pump and the soliton spectral maximum. Defining this offset as Ω, the repetition frequency is given by the following equation [26,27]:…”

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confidence: 99%

Spatial-mode-interaction-induced dispersive waves and their active tuning in microresonators

Yang

Vahala

2016

Optica

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The nonlinear propagation of optical pulses in dielectric waveguides and resonators induces a wide range of remarkable interactions. One example is dispersive-wave generation, the optical analog of Cherenkov radiation. These waves play an essential role in the fiber-optic spectral broadeners used in spectroscopy and metrology. Dispersive waves form when a soliton pulse begins to radiate power as a result of higher-order dispersion. Recently, dispersive-wave generation in microcavities has been reported by phase matching the waves to dissipative Kerr solitons. Here, it is shown that spatial mode interactions within a microcavity can be used to induce dispersive waves. The soliton self-frequency shift is also shown to enable fine tuning control of the dispersive-wave frequency. Both this mechanism and spatial mode interactions allow spectral control of these important waves in microresonators. If the spectrum of a soliton pulse extends into regions where second-order dispersion changes sign, then radiation into a new pulse, the dispersive wave, may occur at a phase-matching wavelength [1,2]. The generation of these waves is analogous to Cherenkov radiation [3] and extends the spectral reach of optical pulses [4]. The recent ability to control dispersion in microresonators has allowed accurate spectral placement of dispersive waves relative to a radiating cavity soliton [5]. Such dispersionengineered control has made possible 2f-3f self-referencing of frequency microcombs [6] and octave-spanning double-dispersive waves [7]. Dispersive-wave generation in optical fibers has traditionally relied upon control of geometrical dispersion in conjunction with the intrinsic material dispersion of the dielectric [4], and this same method has been successfully demonstrated in microresonators [5]. Recently, spatial mode interactions in multimode fiber have also been used for this purpose [8][9][10].Here, spatial mode interactions within a microresonator are used to phase match a soliton pulse to a dispersive wave. These mode interactions often frustrate the formation of solitons [11] and, as a result, microresonators are typically designed to minimize or exclude entirely the resulting modal avoided crossings [5,[12][13][14][15]. Also, while dispersive wave phase matching is normally induced by more gradual variations in dispersion, spatialmode interactions produce spectrally abrupt variations that can activate a dispersive wave in the vicinity of a narrowband soliton. Below, the demonstration of dispersive-wave generation by this process is presented after characterizing two strongly interacting spatial-mode families. The phase matching of the dispersive wave to the soliton is then studied, including the effect of soliton frequency offset relative to the pump, as is caused by soliton recoil or by the Raman-induced soliton self-frequency shift (SSFS) [5,13,[16][17][18]. It is shown that this mechanism enables active tuning control of the dispersive wave by pump tuning.In the experiment, an ultrahigh-Q silica microresonator (3 mm...

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“…As a result, they are different from mode locked lasers [79] and do not require two point locking for their stabilization [80][81][82]. Fiber loop can support a large number of non-interacting pulses that can be individually addressed [83][84][85] while microresonators also support multiple non-interacting pulses [86]. It is possible to control mode locking by modulation of the pump in both fiber cavities [87] and microcavities [88].…”

Section: Resonant Oscillationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The parametric seedling or injection locking of the frequency combs can be used for improvement of their stability as well as for achieving low frequency phase noise. A relevant development took place in studies of fiber loop cavity solitons where it was shown that modulated pump can be used to control the position of light pulses [84]. To reduce the fluctuations of the repetition rate of the frequency comb it was suggested to take advantage of the injection locking properties of the Kerr frequency comb oscillator and create an opto-electronic oscillator that involves an active Kerr comb oscillator as a part of the optical loop of the opto-electronic circuit [155].…”

Section: Resonant Four Wave Mixing and Multi-chromatic Pumpingmentioning

confidence: 99%

On Frequency Combs in Monolithic Resonators

2016

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Optical frequency combs have become indispensable in astronomical measurements, biological fingerprinting, optical metrology, and radio frequency photonic signal generation. Recently demonstrated microring resonator-based Kerr frequency combs point the way towards chip scale optical frequency comb generator retaining major properties of the lab scale devices. This technique is promising for integrated miniature radiofrequency and microwave sources, atomic clocks, optical references and femtosecond pulse generators. Here we present Kerr frequency comb development in a historical perspective emphasizing its similarities and differences with other physical phenomena. We elucidate fundamental principles and describe practical implementations of Kerr comb oscillators, highlighting associated solved and unsolved problems.

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Temporal tweezing of light through the trapping and manipulation of temporal cavity solitons

Cited by 183 publications

References 44 publications

Soliton crystals in Kerr resonators

Soliton crystals in Kerr resonators

Spatial-mode-interaction-induced dispersive waves and their active tuning in microresonators

On Frequency Combs in Monolithic Resonators

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