Universal dynamics and deterministic switching of dissipative Kerr solitons in optical microresonators

Guo, Hairun; Karpov, Maxim; Lucas, Erwan; Kordts, Arne; Pfeiffer, Martin H. P.; Brasch, Victor; Lihachev, Grigory; Lobanov, Valery E.; Gorodetsky, M. L.; Kippenberg, Tobias J.

doi:10.1038/nphys3893

Cited by 390 publications

(185 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…1. Importantly, once a multiple-soliton comb state is generated, the transition to a single-soliton state can be accomplished in a reliable and deterministic manner [29] by adjusting the laser frequency cf. Fig.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Microresonator-based solitons for massively parallel coherent optical communications

Marin-Palomo

Kemal

Karpov

et al. 2017

Nature

1,047

713

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Optical solitons are waveforms that preserve their shape while propagating, relying on a balance of dispersion and nonlinearity [1,2]. Soliton-based data transmission schemes were investigated in the 1980s, promising to overcome the limitations imposed by dispersion of optical fibers. These approaches, however, were eventually abandoned in favor of wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) schemes that are easier to implement and offer improved scalability to higher data rates. Here, we show that solitons may experience a comeback in optical communications, this time not as a competitor, but as a key element of massively parallel WDM. Instead of encoding data on the soliton itself, we exploit continuously circulating dissipative Kerr solitons (DKS) in a microresonator [3,4]. DKS are generated in an integrated silicon nitride microresonator [5] by four-photon interactions mediated by Kerr nonlinearity, leading to low-noise, spectrally smooth and broadband optical frequency combs [6]. In our experiments, we use two interleaved soliton Kerr combs to trans-mit a data stream of more than 50 Tbit/s on a total of 179 individual optical carriers that span the entire telecommunication C and L bands. Equally important, we demonstrate coherent detection of a WDM data stream by using a pair of microresonator Kerr soliton combs one as a multi-wavelength light source at the transmitter, and another one as a corresponding local oscillator (LO) at the receiver. This approach exploits the scalability advantages of microresonator soliton comb sources for massively parallel optical communications both at the transmitter and receiver side. Taken together, the results prove the significant potential of these sources to replace arrays of continuous-wave lasers in high-speed communications. In combination with advanced spatial multiplexing schemes [7,8] and highly integrated silicon photonic circuits [9], DKS combs may bring chip-scale petabit/s transceivers into reach.The first observation of solitons in optical fibers [2] in 1980 was immediately followed by major research efforts to harness such waveforms for long-haul communications [1]. In these schemes, data was encoded on soliton pulses by simple amplitude modulation using on-off-keying (OOK). However, even though the viability of the approach was experimentally demonstrated by transmission over one million kilometres [10], the vision of soliton-based communications was ultimately hindered by difficulties in achieving shape-preserving propagation in real transmission systems [1] and by the fact that nonlinear interactions intrinsically prevent dense packing of soliton pulses in either the time or frequency domain. Moreover, with the advent of wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM), line rates in long-haul communication systems could be increased by rather simple parallel transmission of data streams with lower symbol rates, which are less dispersion sensitive. Consequently, soliton-based communication schemes have moved out of focus over the last two decades. More recently, frequ...

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confidence: 99%

Microresonator-based solitons for massively parallel coherent optical communications

Marin-Palomo

Kemal

Karpov

et al. 2017

Nature

1,047

713

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“…The shift was also shown to depend linearly on intracavity power. In this way, we anticipate that the issues posed by the thermo-optic effects may be mitigated by appropriate design and active thermal stabilization, such as via recently developed techniques that stabilize the soliton duration [28,29] or using Pound-Drever-Hall method [8].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Soliton dual frequency combs in crystalline microresonators

Pavlov¹,

Lihachev²,

Koptyaev³

et al. 2017

Opt. Lett.

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100

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We present a novel compact dual-comb source based on a monolithic optical crystalline MgF2 multi-resonator stack. The coherent soliton combs generated in two microresonators of the stack with the repetition rate of 12.1 GHz and difference of 1.62 MHz provided after heterodyning a 300 MHz wide radio-frequency comb. Analogous system can be used for dual-comb spectroscopy, coherent LIDAR applications and massively parallel optical communications.Kerr frequency combs [1, 2] combine unique properties inherent to both narrow-linewidth lasers and broadband light sources. They enable high repetition rates in the multi-GHz to THz domain, broad octave spectrum [3,4], and low-noise RF beat note [5][6][7]. A major advance has been the discovery of the dissipative soliton formation regime in Kerr frequency combs in nonlinear crystalline [8], silica [9], and chip-integrated Si 3 N 4 optical microresonators [10]. This process, that has been demonstrated in a wide variety of microresonator platforms recently, enables fully coherent broadband comb operation and attract significant research interest as possible compact and high repetition rate alternatives to traditional optical frequency combs that revolutionized highprecision spectroscopy [11]. One promising application of frequency combs is dual comb based spectropscopy, a method that enables spectroscopy without the use of diffractive elements. The dual-comb approach [12] allows direct conversion of optical spectra to the radio-frequency domain, and has found applications in such different areas as laser ranging [13] with sub-micron accuracy [14] or high-resolution spectroscopy [15]. In addition the dual comb method can be applied to coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (CARS) [16] providing very fast Raman spectrum measurements (∼ 100 µs) and real-time high-resolution spectral imaging. With continued development, the dual-comb spectrometer could replace traditional Fourier spectroscopy in many applications owing to its higher sensitivity [15], fast measurement and stability due to the absence of moving parts. Dual-comb spectroscopy was also demonstrated using quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) in the mid-infrared range (λ ∼ 4 − 9 µm), appropriate for molecular rotational-vibrational absorption spectroscopy [17,18].Recently, dual Kerr frequency comb generation for dual-comb spectroscopy was demonstrated using a pair of optical microresonators in mid- [19] and near-infrared regions [20,21]. In Ref.[20] the dual-comb source consisted of two silicon chip integrated microrings with slightly different radii independently coupled to the same bus waveguide. Integrated microheaters were used for accurate tuning of resonance frequencies of both resonators for combs generation using a single laser as a pump source. In dual comb spectroscopy, the free spectral range (FSR) difference δf between the two generated combs defines the interferogram refresh time ∼ 1/δf and hence signal-to-noise ratio of the radiofrequency spectrum [16]. Well matched resonators having low difference of FSRs would...

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“…We recently demonstrated a way to probe the effective detuning within the soliton state [22], akin to techniques employed in ultrafast lasers [27,28]. The underlying idea is to frequency-sweep weak phase-modulation sidebands imprinted onto the pump laser and record the resulting amplitude modulation of the optical power coming out of the cavity.…”

Section: A Effective Detuning Probing and Stabilization Of A Dissipamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the former two parameters are readily accessible and measurable with high precision, the detuning of the nonlinear system is more challenging to determine, in particular since microresonators are susceptible to thermal nonlinearities [19,20]. Here, we apply a recently introduced method [21,22] enabling detuning measurement, to carry out a controlled study of the effect of the detuning on the properties of a single soliton in a crystalline magnesium fluoride (MgF 2 ) resonator, and perform a careful comparison of the measurements to the theoretical predictions. This is achieved via a feedbackstabilization of the detuning parameter, which ensures the stability over the measurement duration and and enabled long-term soliton stabilization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detuning-dependent properties and dispersion-induced instabilities of temporal dissipative Kerr solitons in optical microresonators

et al. 2017

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Temporal-dissipative Kerr solitons are self-localized light pulses sustained in driven nonlinear optical resonators. Their realization in microresonators has enabled compact sources of coherent optical frequency combs as well as the study of dissipative solitons. A key parameter of their dynamics is the effective-detuning of the pump laser to the thermally-and Kerr-shifted cavity resonance. Together with the free spectral range and dispersion, it governs the soliton-pulse duration, as predicted by an approximate analytical solution of the Lugiato-Lefever equation. Yet, a precise experimental verification of this relation was lacking so far. Here, by measuring and controlling the effective-detuning, we establish a new way of stabilizing solitons in microresonators and demonstrate that the measured relation linking soliton width and detuning deviates by less than 1% from the approximate expression, validating its excellent predictive power. Furthermore, a detuning-dependent enhancement of specific comb lines is revealed, due to linear couplings between mode-families. They cause deviations from the predicted comb power evolution, and induce a detuning-dependent soliton recoil that modifies the pulse repetition-rate, explaining its unexpected dependence on laser-detuning. Finally, we observe that detuning-dependent mode-crossings can destabilize the soliton, leading to an unpredicted soliton breathing regime (oscillations of the pulse) that occurs in a normally-stable regime. Our results test the approximate analytical solutions with an unprecedented degree of accuracy and provide new insights into dissipative-soliton dynamics.

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Universal dynamics and deterministic switching of dissipative Kerr solitons in optical microresonators

Abstract: We investigate soliton generation dynamics with the influence of thermal effects. Either soliton annihilation or survival can occur in different trials with the same tuning method, and a spontaneous route to soliton formation is observed.

Cited by 390 publications

References 53 publications

Microresonator-based solitons for massively parallel coherent optical communications

Microresonator-based solitons for massively parallel coherent optical communications

Soliton dual frequency combs in crystalline microresonators

Detuning-dependent properties and dispersion-induced instabilities of temporal dissipative Kerr solitons in optical microresonators

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