We report on experimental observations of coexistence and interactions between nonlinear states with different polarizations in a passive Kerr resonator driven at a single carrier frequency. Using a fiber ring resonator with adjustable birefringence, we partially overlap nonlinear resonances of two orthogonal polarization modes, achieving coexistence between different nonlinear states by locking the driving laser frequency at various points within the overlap region. In particular, we observe coexistence between temporal cavity solitons and modulation instability patterns, as well as coexistence between two nonidentical cavity solitons with different polarizations. We also observe interactions between the distinctly polarized cavity solitons, as well as spontaneous excitation and annihilation of solitons by a near-orthogonally polarized unstable modulation instability pattern. By demonstrating that a single frequency driving field can support coexistence between differentially polarized solitons and complex modulation instability patterns, our work sheds light on the rich dissipative dynamics of multimode Kerr resonators. Our findings could also be of relevance to the generation of multiplexed microresonator frequency combs.
We report on an experimental and numerical study of temporal Kerr cavity soliton dynamics in dispersion-managed fiber ring resonators. We find that dispersion management can significantly magnify the Kelly-like resonant radiation sidebands emitted by the solitons. Because of the underlying phase-matching conditions, the sideband amplitudes tend to increase with increasing pumpcavity detuning, ultimately limiting the range of detunings over which the solitons can exist. Our experimental findings show excellent agreement with numerical simulations. * anie911@aucklanduni.ac.nz † m.erkintalo@auckland.ac.nz arXiv:1809.07886v1 [physics.optics]
Dissipative solitons are self-localized structures that can persist indefinitely in open systems driven out of equilibrium. They play a key role in photonics, underpinning technologies from mode-locked lasers to microresonator optical frequency combs. Here we report on experimental observations of spontaneous symmetry breaking of dissipative optical solitons. Our experiments are performed in a nonlinear optical ring resonator, where dissipative solitons arise in the form of persisting pulses of light known as Kerr cavity solitons. We engineer symmetry between two orthogonal polarization modes of the resonator and show that the solitons of the system can spontaneously break this symmetry, giving rise to two distinct but co-existing vectorial solitons with mirror-like, asymmetric polarization states. We also show that judiciously applied perturbations allow for deterministic switching between the two symmetry-broken dissipative soliton states. Our work delivers fundamental insights at the intersection of multi-mode nonlinear optical resonators, dissipative structures, and spontaneous symmetry breaking, and expands upon our understanding of dissipative solitons in coherently driven Kerr resonators.
It was recently predicted that, due to stimulated Raman scattering, temporal Kerr cavity solitons may exhibit oscillatory instabilities at large cavity detunings [Phys. Rev. Lett.120, 053902 (2018)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.120.053902]. Here, we report experimental observations of this behavior. To access the appropriate oscillatory regime, we construct a macroscopic fiber ring resonator with a high finesse of F≈240. By synchronously driving the resonator with flat-top nanosecond pulses, we can reach very large intracavity power levels, where Raman-induced soliton oscillations can be observed. We also surprisingly find that, in the limit of large cavity driving strengths, new soliton instability regimes that are not accounted for in the known bifurcation structure of driven Kerr resonators can emerge even in the absence of Raman effects. Our experimental results are in good agreement with numerical simulations.
With demonstrated applications ranging from metrology to
telecommunications, soliton microresonator frequency combs have
emerged over the past decade as a remarkable new technology. However,
standard implementations allow only for the generation of combs whose
repetition rate is tied closely to the fundamental resonator
free-spectral range (FSR), offering little or no dynamic control over
the comb line spacing. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate
harmonic and rational harmonic driving as novel techniques that allow
for the robust generation of soliton frequency combs with discretely
adjustable frequency spacing. By driving an integrated Kerr
microresonator with a periodic train of picosecond pulses whose
repetition rate is set close to an integer harmonic of the 3.23 GHz
cavity FSR, we deterministically generate soliton frequency combs with
frequency spacings discretely adjustable between 3.23 GHz and
19.38 GHz. More remarkably, we also demonstrate that driving the
resonator at rational fractions of the FSR allows for the generation
of combs whose frequency spacing corresponds to an integer harmonic of
the pump repetition rate. By measuring the combs’ radio-frequency
spectrum, we confirm operation in the low-noise soliton regime with no
supermode noise. The novel techniques demonstrated in our work provide
new degrees of freedom for the design of synchronously pumped soliton
frequency combs.
We report numerical and experimental observations of spontaneous symmetry breaking of Kerr cavity solitons. We show that cavity solitons with mirror polarization states can co-exist and be individually addressed in a symmetric fiber ring resonator.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.