739 research outputs found
Mode spectrum and temporal soliton formation in optical microresonators
The formation of temporal dissipative solitons in optical microresonators
enables compact, high repetition rate sources of ultra-short pulses as well as
low noise, broadband optical frequency combs with smooth spectral envelopes.
Here we study the influence of the resonator mode spectrum on temporal soliton
formation. Using frequency comb assisted diode laser spectroscopy, the measured
mode structure of crystalline MgF2 resonators are correlated with temporal
soliton formation. While an overal general anomalous dispersion is required, it
is found that higher order dispersion can be tolerated as long as it does not
dominate the resonator's mode structure. Mode coupling induced avoided
crossings in the resonator mode spectrum are found to prevent soliton
formation, when affecting resonator modes close to the pump laser. The
experimental observations are in excellent agreement with numerical simulations
based on the nonlinear coupled mode equations, which reveal the rich interplay
of mode crossings and soliton formation
Temporal solitons in optical microresonators
Dissipative solitons can emerge in a wide variety of dissipative nonlinear
systems throughout the fields of optics, medicine or biology. Dissipative
solitons can also exist in Kerr-nonlinear optical resonators and rely on the
double balance between parametric gain and resonator loss on the one hand and
nonlinearity and diffraction or dispersion on the other hand. Mathematically
these solitons are solution to the Lugiato-Lefever equation and exist on top of
a continuous wave (cw) background. Here we report the observation of temporal
dissipative solitons in a high-Q optical microresonator. The solitons are
spontaneously generated when the pump laser is tuned through the effective zero
detuning point of a high-Q resonance, leading to an effective red-detuned
pumping. Red-detuned pumping marks a fundamentally new operating regime in
nonlinear microresonators. While usually unstablethis regime acquires unique
stability in the presence of solitons without any active feedback on the
system. The number of solitons in the resonator can be controlled via the pump
laser detuning and transitions to and between soliton states are associated
with discontinuous steps in the resonator transmission. Beyond enabling to
study soliton physics such as soliton crystals our observations open the route
towards compact, high repetition-rate femto-second sources, where the operating
wavelength is not bound to the availability of broadband laser gain media. The
single soliton states correspond in the frequency domain to low-noise optical
frequency combs with smooth spectral envelopes, critical to applications in
broadband spectroscopy, telecommunications, astronomy and low phase-noise
microwave generation.Comment: Includes Supplementary Informatio
Photonic chip based optical frequency comb using soliton induced Cherenkov radiation
By continuous wave pumping of a dispersion engineered, planar silicon nitride
microresonator, continuously circulating, sub-30fs short temporal dissipative
solitons are generated, that correspond to pulses of 6 optical cycles and
constitute a coherent optical frequency comb in the spectral domain. Emission
of soliton induced Cherenkov radiation caused by higher order dispersion
broadens the spectral bandwidth to 2/3 of an octave, sufficient for self
referencing, in excellent agreement with recent theoretical predictions and the
broadest coherent microresonator frequency comb generated to date. In a further
step, this frequency comb is fully phase stabilized. The ability to preserve
coherence over a broad spectral bandwidth using soliton induced Cherenkov
radiation marks a critical milestone in the development of planar optical
frequency combs, enabling on one hand application in e.g. coherent
communications, broadband dual comb spectroscopy and Raman spectral imaging,
while on the other hand significantly relaxing dispersion requirements for
broadband microresonator frequency combs and providing a path for their
generation in the visible and UV. Our results underscore the utility and
effectiveness of planar microresonator frequency comb technology, that offers
the potential to make frequency metrology accessible beyond specialized
laboratories.Comment: Changes: - Added data (new Fig.4) on the first full phase
stabilization of a dissipative Kerr soliton (or dissipative cavity soliton)
in a microresonator - Extended Fig. 8 in the SI - Introduced nomenclature of
dissipative Kerr solitons - Minor other change
Microresonator solitons for massively parallel coherent optical communications
Optical solitons are waveforms that preserve their shape while propagating,
relying on a balance of dispersion and nonlinearity. 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. DKS are generated in an integrated silicon nitride
microresonator by four-photon interactions mediated by Kerr nonlinearity,
leading to low-noise, spectrally smooth and broadband optical frequency combs.
In our experiments, we use two interleaved soliton Kerr combs to transmit a
data stream of more than 50Tbit/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.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
Coherent terabit communications with microresonator Kerr frequency combs
Optical frequency combs enable coherent data transmission on hundreds of
wavelength channels and have the potential to revolutionize terabit
communications. Generation of Kerr combs in nonlinear integrated microcavities
represents a particularly promising option enabling line spacings of tens of
GHz, compliant with wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) grids. However, Kerr
combs may exhibit strong phase noise and multiplet spectral lines, and this has
made high-speed data transmission impossible up to now. Recent work has shown
that systematic adjustment of pump conditions enables low phase-noise Kerr
combs with singlet spectral lines. Here we demonstrate that Kerr combs are
suited for coherent data transmission with advanced modulation formats that
pose stringent requirements on the spectral purity of the optical source. In a
first experiment, we encode a data stream of 392 Gbit/s on subsequent lines of
a Kerr comb using quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) and 16-state quadrature
amplitude modulation (16QAM). A second experiment shows feedback-stabilization
of a Kerr comb and transmission of a 1.44 Tbit/s data stream over a distance of
up to 300 km. The results demonstrate that Kerr combs can meet the highly
demanding requirements of multi-terabit/s coherent communications and thus
offer a solution towards chip-scale terabit/s transceivers
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