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Temporal solitons in optical microresonators

Nature Photonics volume 8, pages 145–152 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Temporal dissipative solitons in a continuous-wave laser-driven nonlinear optical microresonator were observed. The solitons were generated spontaneously when the laser frequency was tuned through the effective zero detuning point of a high-Q resonance, which led to an effective red-detuned pumping. Transition to soliton states were characterized by discontinuous steps in the resonator transmission. The solitons were stable in the long term and their number could be controlled via pump-laser detuning. These observations are in agreement with numerical simulations and soliton theory. Operating in the single-soliton regime allows the continuous output coupling of a femtosecond pulse train directly from the microresonator. This approach enables ultrashort pulse syntheses in spectral regimes in which broadband laser-gain media and saturable absorbers are not available. In the frequency domain the single-soliton states correspond to low-noise optical frequency combs with smooth spectral envelopes, critical to applications in broadband spectroscopy, telecommunications, astronomy and low noise microwave generation.

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Figure 1: MgF2 microresonator, dispersion and bistability.
Figure 2: Transmission and beatnote.
Figure 3: Numerical simulations of soliton formation in a microresonator.
Figure 4: Experimental demonstration of stable temporal solitons in an optical microresonator.
Figure 5: Temporal characterization of ultrashort pulses.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank R. Salem and A. Gaeta for providing the PicoLuz LLC ultrafast temporal magnifier and advice when evaluating the data. The authors acknowledge valuable advice by K. Hartinger on dispersion compensation as well as helpful discussion with S. Coen and M. Erkintalo. This work was supported by the DARPA program QuASAR, the Swiss National Science Foundation. V.B. acknowledges support by an ESA PhD fellowship. J.D.J. acknowledges support by Marie Curie IIF. M.L.G. acknowledges support from RFBR grant 13-02-00271 and partial support by State Contract 07.514.12.4032. The research that led to these results received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement No. 263500.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, 1015, Switzerland

    T. Herr, V. Brasch, J. D. Jost, C. Y. Wang & T. J. Kippenberg

  2. Faculty of Physics, M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, 119991, Russia

    N. M. Kondratiev & M. L. Gorodetsky

  3. Russian Quantum Center, Skolkovo, 143025, Russia

    M. L. Gorodetsky

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  1. T. Herr
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  2. V. Brasch
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  5. N. M. Kondratiev
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  6. M. L. Gorodetsky
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Contributions

T.H. designed and performed the experiments and analysed the data. M.L.G. and T.H. performed the numerical simulations, M.L.G. developed the analytic description, V.B. assisted in the experiments, J.D.J. assisted in the temporal magnifier experiment, T.H. and M.L.G. fabricated the sample, C.Y.W. assisted in sample fabrication and N.M.K. assisted in developing the analytic description. T.H., M.L.G. and T.J.K. wrote the manuscript. T.J.K. supervised the project.

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Correspondence to M. L. Gorodetsky or T. J. Kippenberg.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Herr, T., Brasch, V., Jost, J. et al. Temporal solitons in optical microresonators. Nature Photon 8, 145–152 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2013.343

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