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In this Letter, we report phase-matched four-wave mixing separated by over one-octave in a dispersion engineered crystalline microresonator. Experimental and numerical results presented here confirm that primary sidebands were generated with a frequency shift up to 140 THz, and that secondary sidebands formed a localized comb structure, known as a clustered comb in the vicinity of the primary sidebands. A theoretical analysis of the phase-matching condition validated our experimental observations, and our results good agree well with numerical simulations. These results offer the potential to realize a frequency tunable comb cluster generator operating from 1 µm to mid-infrared wavelengths with a single and compact device.Phase-matched four-wave mixing (FWM) in a whispering gallery mode (WGM) microresonator driven by a continuous wave (CW) laser have been studied for decades [1]. In particular, a microresonator frequency comb (Kerr comb) realized via a cascade FWM process makes it possible to achieve broadband optical frequency comb sources characterized as having high repetition rates, compactness and low-energy consumption [2]. They provide fascinating applications including precise spectroscopy [3] and coherent data transmission [4]. A Kerr comb, and particularly a dissipative Kerr soliton (DKS), which is a stable low noise state, features a coherent broad comb spectrum with a smooth envelope [5]. However, spectral broadening over one octave remains a challenge mainly because of the limitation imposed by group velocity dispersion (GVD). Spectral broadening utilizing dispersion engineering has been achieved with Cherenkov radiation, which can be understood in terms of the coherent dispersive wave in the frequency domain emitted from a soliton propagating along a resonator [6]. A dispersive wave induces asymmetrical spectral profiles and occurs at the point where a simple phase-matching condition is satisfied, and it is determined by the signs and values of higher-order (i.e., third-, fourth-and fifthorder) dispersion parameters.Higher-order dispersion plays important roles not only as regards a Kerr soliton in an anomalous GVD regime, but also in a weak normal GVD regime. Since a normal dispersion usually does not allow modulation instability (MI) near the pump, phase-matched FWM may be considered to occur only in an anomalous dispersion resonator. However, higher-order dispersion, particularly even orders of dispersion, enables a resonant MI process, called clustered frequency combs, to occur far from the pump mode [7][8][9]. Clustered combs, characterized by FWM generation with parametric sidebands that have a * takasumi@elec.keio.ac.jp large-frequency shift, have been reported using an MgF 2 microresonator [7,9] and silica microtoroids [8]. The fact that clustered combs have the potential to utilize microcomb source emitting in the 1.0 to 3.5 µm wavelength region with just a near-infrared pump indicates interesting potential applications, for example laser processing and optical communication. In particular,...

Listeners reported the perceptual completion of a sound in stimuli consisting of two crossing frequency glides of unequal duration that shared a short silent gap (40 ms or less) at their crossing point. Even though both glides shared the gap, it was consistently perceived only in the shorter glide, whereas the longer glide could be perceptually completed. Studies on perceptual completion in the auditory domain reported so far have shown that completion of a sound with a gap occurs only if the gap is filled with energy from another sound. In the stimuli used here, however, no such substitute energy was present in the gap, showing evidence for perceptual completion of a sound without local stimulation ('modal' completion). Perceptual completion of the long glide occurred under both monaural and dichotic presentation of the gap-sharing glides; it therefore involves central stages of auditory processing. The inclusion of the gap in the short glide, rather than in both the long and the short glide, is explained in terms of auditory event and stream formation.

The demand for high-speed and highly efficient optical communication techniques has been rapidly growing due to the ever-increasing volume of data traffic. As well as the digital coherent communication used for core and metro networks, intensity modulation and direct detection (IM-DD) are still promising schemes in intra/inter data centers thanks to their low latency, high reliability, and good cost performance. In this work, we study a microresonator-based frequency comb as a potential light source for future IM-DD optical systems where applications may include replacing individual stabilized lasers with a continuous laser driven microresonator. Regarding comb line powers and spectral intervals, we compare a modulation instability comb and a soliton microcomb and provide a quantitative analysis with regard to telecom applications. Our experimental demonstration achieved a forward error correction (FEC) free operation of bit-error rate (BER) <10−9 with a 1.45 Tbps capacity using a total of 145 lines over the entire C-band and revealed the possibility of soliton microcomb-based ultra-dense wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) with a simple, cost-effective IM-DD scheme, with a view to future practical use in data centers.