Spontaneous symmetry breaking in photonic crystal fiber ring cavities

Abstract

We introduce a new equation that describes the spatio-temporal evolution of arbitrary pulses propagating in a fiber-ring cavity. This model is a significant extension of the traditionally used Lugiato-Lefever model. We demonstrate spontaneous symmetry breaking as well as multistability regimes in a synchronously pumped fiber-ring cavity. The equation can be applied to virtually any type of waveguide-based ring cavity.

Experimental observation of the spontaneous breaking of the time-reversal symmetry in a synchronously pumped passive Kerr resonator

“…In contrast, all reported experimental demonstrations of SSB in nonlinear optics are associated with asymmetries either in the spatial (transverse) distribution of the light [16][17][18] or in its state of polarization [15,21]. Remarkably, the SSB of passive Kerr resonators has been further reported twice [24,25] since its original prediction in 1995, yet has never been studied experimentally. In this Letter, we report the first experimental observation of a time-reversal SSB instability using an optical fiber ring cavity.The cavity that we consider is depicted schematically in Fig.…”