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Parametrically driven Kerr cavity solitons

Abstract

Cavity solitons are optical pulses that propagate indefinitely in nonlinear resonators. They are attracting attention, both for their many potential applications and their connection to other fields of science. Cavity solitons differ from laser dissipative solitons in that they are coherently driven. So far the focus has been on driving Kerr solitons externally, at their carrier frequency, in which case a single stable localized solution exists for fixed parameters. Here we experimentally demonstrate Kerr cavity solitons driving at twice their carrier frequency, using an all-fibre optical parametric oscillator. In that configuration, called parametric driving, two backgroundless solitons of opposite phase may coexist. We harness this multiplicity to generate a string of random bits, thereby extending the pool of applications of Kerr cavity solitons to random number generators and Ising machines. Our results are in excellent agreement with a seminal amplitude equation, highlighting connections to hydrodynamic and mechanical systems, among others.

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Fig. 1: Illustration of the differences between externally driven and parametrically driven cavity solitons.
Fig. 2: Bifurcation structure of the PDNLSE.
Fig. 3: Experimental set-up.
Fig. 4: Characterization of the PDCS.
Fig. 5: Random bit generation.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to M. Fita Codina for the manufacturing of experimental components and to P. Kockaert and C. Corbari for fruitful discussions. This work was supported by funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 757800) and from the Fonds Emile Defay. N.E. acknowledges the support of the Fonds pour la formation á la Recherche dans l’Industrie et dans l’Agriculture (FRIA). F.D.L. acknowledges the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 842676. F.L. and P.P.-R. acknowledge the support of the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS).

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Contributions

N.E. designed and performed the experiments, supervised by S.-P.G. Both F.D.L. and P.-J.S. manufactured the periodically poled fibre. N.E. derived and simulated the mean-field model. P.P.-R. and C.M.A. performed the bifurcation and linear stability analysis of the mean-field model. F.L. supervised the overall project and wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Nicolas Englebert.

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Competing interests

N.E., S.-P.G. and F.L. have filed patent applications on the active resonator design and its use for frequency conversion (European patent office, application number EP20188731.2). The remaining authors declare no competing interests.

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Englebert, N., De Lucia, F., Parra-Rivas, P. et al. Parametrically driven Kerr cavity solitons. Nat. Photon. 15, 857–861 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-021-00858-z

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