Deterministic generation of single soliton kerr frequency comb in microresonators by a single shot pulsed trigger

Zhe Kang, Feng Li*, Jinhui Yuan*, K. Nakkeeran, J. Nathan Kutz, Qiang Wu, Chongxiu Yu, Alex Wai

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

25 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Kerr soliton frequency comb generation in monolithic microresonators recently attracted great interests as it enables chip-scale few-cycle pulse generation at microwave rates with smooth octave-spanning spectra for self-referencing. Such versatile platform finds significant applications in dual-comb spectroscopy, low-noise optical frequency synthesis, coherent communication systems, etc. However, it still remains challenging to straightforwardly and deterministically generate and sustain the single-soliton state in microresonators. In this paper, we propose and theoretically demonstrate the excitation of single-soliton Kerr frequency comb by seeding the continuous-wave driven nonlinear microcavity with a pulsed trigger. Unlike the mostly adopted frequency tuning scheme reported so far, we show that an energetic single shot pulse can trigger the single-soliton state deterministically without experiencing any unstable or chaotic states. Neither the pump frequency nor the cavity resonance is required to be tuned. The generated mode-locked single-soliton Kerr comb is robust and insensitive to perturbations. Even when the thermal effect induced by the absorption of the intracavity light is taken into account, the proposed single pulse trigger approach remains valid without requiring any thermal compensation means.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)18563-18577
Number of pages15
JournalOptics Express
Volume26
Issue number14
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 Jul 2018

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

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