Observation of dispersive wave emission by temporal cavity solitons

We examine a coherently-driven, dispersion-managed, passive Kerr fiber ring resonator and report the first direct experimental observation of dispersive wave emission by temporal cavity solitons. Our observations are in excellent agreement with analytical predictions and they are fully corroborated by numerical simulations. These results lead to a better understanding of the behavior of temporal cavity solitons under conditions where higher-order dispersion plays a significant role. Significantly, since temporal cavity solitons manifest themselves in monolithic microresonators, our results are likely to explain the origins of spectral features observed in broadband Kerr frequency combs.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Observations of spatiotemporal instabilities in the strong-driving regime of an AC-driven nonlinear Schr\"odinger system

Localized dissipative structures (LDS) have been predicted to display a rich array of instabilities, yet systematic experimental studies have remained scarce. We have used a synchronously-driven optical fiber ring resonator to experimentally study LDS instabilities in the strong-driving regime of the AC-driven nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation (also known as the Lugiato-Lefever model). Through continuous variation of a single control parameter, we have observed a string of theoretically predicted instability modes, including irregular oscillations and chaotic collapses. Beyond a critical point, we observe behaviour reminiscent of a phase transition: LDSs trigger localized domains of spatiotemporal chaos that invade the surrounding homogeneous state. Our findings directly confirm a number of theoretical predictions, and they highlight that complex LDS instabilities can play a role in experimental systems.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure