We present measurements of silicon nitride nonlinear microresonators and frequency comb generation at cryogenic temperatures as low as 7~K. The resulting two orders of magnitude reduction in the thermo-refractive coefficient relative to room-temperature enables direct access to single bright Kerr soliton states through adiabatic frequency tuning of the pump laser while remaining in thermal equilibrium. Our experimental results, supported by theoretical modeling, show that single solitons are easily accessible at temperatures below 60~K for the microresonator device under study. We further demonstrate that the cryogenic temperature primarily impacts the thermo-refractive coefficient. Other parameters critical to the generation of solitons, such as quality factor, dispersion, and effective nonlinearity, are unaltered. Finally, we discuss the potential improvement in thermo-refractive noise resulting from cryogenic operation. The results of this study open up new directions in advancing chip-scale frequency comb optical clocks and metrology at cryogenic temperatures.
We demonstrate a cryo-compatible, fully fiber-integrated, alignment-free optical microresonator. The compatibility with low temperatures expands its possible applications to the wide field of solid-state quantum optics, where a cryogenic environment is often a requirement. At a temperature of 4.6 K we obtain a quality factor of $\mathbf{(9.9 \pm 0.7) \times 10^6}$. In conjunction with the small mode volume provided by the nanofiber, this cavity can be either used in the coherent dynamics or the fast cavity regime, where it can provide a Purcell factor of up to 15. Our resonator is therefore su…
We demonstrate stable microresonator Kerr soliton frequency combs in a III-V platform (AlGaAs on SiO$_2$) through quenching of thermorefractive effects by cryogenic cooling to temperatures between 4~K and 20~K. This cooling reduces the resonator's thermorefractive coefficient, whose room-temperature value is an order of magnitude larger than that of other microcomb platforms like Si$_3$N$_4$, SiO$_2$, and AlN, by more than two orders of magnitude, and makes soliton states adiabatically accessible. Realizing such phase-stable soliton operation is critical for applications that fully exploit the…
Chip-integrated optical frequency combs are attractive optical sources in comb applications requiring high-repetition-rate, low power consumption, or compact size. Spontaneous soliton formation via Kerr parametric oscillation is a promising generation principle in these frequency combs, and has been demonstrated in several material platforms over the past decade. Of these materials, AlGaAs has one of the largest Kerr nonlinearity coefficients allowing low pump threshold comb generation. However, bright soliton generation using this material has only been possible at cryogenic temperature becau…
We investigate the effects of Raman and Kerr gain in crystalline microresonators and determine the conditions required to generate modelocked frequency combs. We show theoretically that strong, narrowband Raman gain determines a maximum microresonator size allowable to achieve comb formation. We verify this condition experimentally in diamond and silicon microresonators and show that there exists a competition between Raman and Kerr effects that leads to the existence of two different comb states.
We observe a transition to a coherent-comb state in a SiN-microresonator with anomalous dispersion. Although ~300 fs pulse trains are generated after line-by-line shaping, the intensity within the microring does not appear to be pulse-like.
Mid-infrared (mid-IR) frequency combs have broad applications in molecular spectroscopy and chemical/biological sensing. Recently developed microresonator-based combs in this wavelength regime could enable portable and robust devices using a single-frequency pump field. Here, we report the first demonstration of a modelocked microresonator-based frequency comb in the mid-IR spanning 2.4 μm to 4.3 μm. We observe high pump-to-comb conversion efficiency, in which 40% of the pump power is converted to the output comb power. Utilizing an integrated PIN structure allows for tuning the silicon micror…
We report the first demonstration of thermally controlled soliton modelocked frequency comb generation in microresonators. By controlling the electric current through heaters integrated with silicon nitride microresonators, we demonstrate a systematic and repeatable pathway to single- and multi-soliton modelocked states without adjusting the pump laser wavelength. Such an approach could greatly simplify the generation of modelocked frequency combs and facilitate applications such as chip-based dual-comb spectroscopy.
We demonstrate that flat-topped dissipative solitonic pulses, platicons, and corresponding frequency combs can be excited in optical microresonators with normal group velocity dispersion using either amplitude modulation of the pump or bichromatic pump. Soft excitation may occur in particular frequency range if modulation depth is large enough and modulation frequency is close to the free spectral range of the microresonator.
We theoretically and experimentally investigate the chaotic regime of optical frequency combs generated in nonlinear ring microresonators pumped with continuous wave light. We show that the chaotic regime reveals itself, in an apparently counter-intuitive way, by a flat top symmetric envelope of the frequency spectrum, when observed by means of an optical spectrum analyzer. The comb demodulated on a fast photodiode produces a noisy radio frequency signal with an spectral width significantly exceeding the linear bandwidth of the microresonator mode.
Kerr frequency combs generated from microresonators are the subject of intense study. Most research employs microresonators with anomalous dispersion, for which modulation instability is believed to play a key role in initiation of the comb. Comb generation in normal dispersion microresonators has also been reported but is less well understood. Here we report a detailed investigation of few-moded, normal dispersion silicon nitride microresonators, showing that mode coupling can strongly modify the local dispersion, even changing its sign. We demonstrate a link between mode coupling and initiat…
A shaped doublet pump pulse is proposed for simultaneous octave-spanning soliton Kerr frequency comb generation and second-harmonic conversion in a single microresonator. The temporal soliton in the cavity is trapped atop a doublet pulse pedestal, resulting in a greatly expanded soliton region compared to that with a general Gaussian pulse pump. The possibility of single-microresonator comb self-referencing in a single silicon nitride microring, which can facilitate compact on-chip optical clocks, is demonstrated via simulation.
We perform the first theoretical modeling of the spectral-temporal dynamics of parametric microresonator comb generation with octave-spanning bandwidths through use of the Lugiato-Lefever model extended to include higher-order dispersion and self-steepening. We show that three distinct stages are necessary to achieve single-pulse modelocking and ultrabroadband, stabilized combs. Our simulations agree well with previous experimental demonstrations and predict many of the observed features, including multi-pulse generation, dispersive wave generation, modelocking and comb stabilization.
We propose a new type of broadband and low repetition rate frequency comb generator which has the shape of an elongated and nanoscale-shallow optical bottle microresonator created at the surface of an optical fiber. The free spectral range (FSR) of the broadband azimuthal eigenfrequency series of this resonator is the exact multiple of the FSR of the dense and narrowband axial series. The effective radius variation of the microresonator is close to a parabola with a nanoscale height which is greater or equal to lambda/2pi*n0 (here lambda is the characteristic radiation wavelength and n0 is the…
We demonstrate control and stabilization of an optical frequency comb generated by four-wave mixing in a monolithic microresonator with a mode spacing in the microwave regime (86 GHz). The comb parameters (mode spacing and offset frequency) are controlled via the power and the frequency of the pump laser, which constitutes one of the comb modes. Furthermore, generation of a microwave beat note at the comb's mode spacing frequency is presented, enabling direct stabilization to a microwave frequency standard.
A high-Q silica whispering-gallery mode microresonator is an attractive platform on which to demonstrate a broad and phase-locked Raman comb in various wavelength regimes. Raman combs can be used for applications such as compact pulse laser sources, sensors, optical clocks, and coherence tomography. However, the formation dynamics of a Raman comb has not been well exploited. Here we study the dynamics of the Raman comb formation in silica rod microresonators, which have cavity free spectral ranges in microwave rates. We generated a Raman comb with a smooth spectral envelope and also observed t…
Recent developments demonstrate that parametric four-wave mixing (FWM) in high-Q microresonators is a highly promising and effective approach for optical frequency comb generation, with applications including spectroscopy, optical clocks, arbitrary waveform generation, frequency metrology, and astronomical spectrograph calibration. Each of these microresonator platforms utilizes a scheme in which the system is pumped by a single-frequency laser at a cavity resonance. This scheme requires tuning of the pump wavelength into resonance and the generated comb is susceptible to fluctuations in pump …
Optical frequency combs are key to optical precision measurements. While most frequency combs operate in the near-infrared regime, many applications require combs at mid-infrared, visible or even ultra-violet wavelengths. Frequency combs can be transferred to other wavelengths via nonlinear optical processes, however, this becomes exceedingly challenging for high-repetition rate frequency combs. Here, it is demonstrated that a synchronously driven high-Q microresonator with a second-order optical nonlinearity can efficiently convert high-repetition rate near-infrared frequency combs to visible…
Experimental and theoretical studies of nonlinear frequency combs in χ^(3) optical microresonators attracted tremendous research interest during the last decade and resulted in prototypes of solitonbased steadily working devices. Realization of similar combs owing to χ^(2) optical nonlinearity promises new breakthroughs and is a big scientific challenge. We analyze the main obstacles for realization of the χ^(2) frequency combs in high-Q microresonators and propose two families of steadystate nonlinear solutions, including soliton and periodic solutions, for such combs. Despite generic periodi…
Microresonator based optical frequency combs (MFC) have demonstrated promise in extending the capabilities of optical frequency combs. Here we demonstrate all optical stabilization of a low noise temporal soliton based MFC in a crystalline resonator via a new technique to control the repetition rate. This is accomplished by thermally heating the microresonator with an additional probe laser coupled to an auxiliary optical resonator mode. The offset frequency is controlled by stabilization of the pump laser frequency to a reference optical frequency comb. We analyze the stabilization by perform…
Octave-wide frequency combs in microresonators are essential for self-referencing. However, it is difficult for the small-size and high-repetition-rate microresonators to achieve perfect soliton modelocking over the broad frequency range due to the detrimental impact of dispersion. Here we examine the stability of the soliton states consisting of one hundred modes in silicon-nitride microresonators with the one-THz free spectral range. We report the coexistence of fast and slow solitons in a narrow detuning range, which is surrounded on either side by the breather states. We decompose the brea…
We demonstrate the first low-noise mid-IR frequency comb source using a silicon microresonator. Our observation of strong Raman scattering lines in the generated comb suggests that Raman and four-wave mixing interactions play a role in assisting the transition to the low-noise state. In addition, we characterize, the intracavity comb generation dynamics using an integrated PIN diode, which takes advantage of the inherent three-photon absorption process in silicon.
Recent experiments have demonstrated the generation of widely-spaced parametric sidebands that can evolve into "clustered" optical frequency combs in Kerr microresonators. Here we describe the physics that underpins the formation of such clustered comb states. In particular, we show that the phase-matching required for the initial sideband generation is such that (at least) one of the sidebands experiences anomalous dispersion, enabling that sideband to drive frequency comb formation via degenerate and non-degenerate four-wave mixing. We validate our proposal through a combination of experimen…
Mode interaction in silicon nitride micro-resonators is investigated. We provide clear experimental evidence of mode interaction between two family modes and mode interaction is demonstrated to be the cause of the comb generation in resonators with normal dispersion.
We stabilize a chip-scale Si3N4 phase-locked Kerr frequency comb via locking the pump laser to an independent stable high-Q reference microresonator and locking the comb spacing to an external microwave oscillator. In this comb, the pump laser shift induces negligible impact on the comb spacing change. This scheme is a step towards miniaturization of the stabilized Kerr comb system as the microresonator reference can potentially be integrated on-chip. Fractional instability of the optical harmonics of the stabilized comb is limited by the microwave oscillator used for comb spacing lock below 1…
Microresonator-based optical frequency combs have been a topic of extensive research during the last few years. Several theoretical models for the comb generation have been proposed; however, they do not comprehensively address experimental results that show a variety of independent comb generation mechanisms. Here, we present frequency-domain experiments that illuminate the transition of microcombs into phase-locked states, which show characteristics of injection locking between ensembles of comb modes. In addition, we demonstrate the existence of equidistant optical frequency combs that are …
Microresonator frequency combs based on the $χ^{(3)}$ nonlinearity are nowadays well understood and making their way into different applications. Recently, microresonator frequency combs based on the $χ^{(2)}$ nonlinearity are receiving increasing attention, as they promise certain benefits, but still require further study. Here, we demonstrate the generation of a $χ^{(2)}$ frequency comb, initiated via optical parametric oscillation (OPO) in a lithium niobate mm-sized microresonator. By pumping at 532 nm with 30 $μ$W of power, we observe 1-THz-wide comb spectra around 1064 nm with degenerate …
Laser linewidth is of central importance in spectroscopy, frequency metrology and all applications of lasers requiring high coherence. It is also of fundamental importance, because the Schawlow-Townes laser linewidth limit is of quantum origin. Recently, a theory of stimulated Brillouin laser (SBL) linewidth has been reported. While the SBL linewidth formula exhibits power and optical Q factor dependences that are identical to the Schawlow-Townes formula, a source of noise not present in two-level lasers, phonon occupancy of the Brillouin mechanical mode, is predicted to be the dominant SBL li…
Microresonator-based frequency combs are strong contenders as light sources for wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM). Recent demonstrations have shown the potential of microresonator combs for replacing tens of WDM lasers with a single laser-pumped device. These experiments relied on microresonators displaying anomalous dispersion. Devices operating in the normal dispersion offer the prospect of attaining high power conversion efficiency - an aspect that will be crucial in the future for enabling energy-efficient coherent communications with higher order modulation formats or lighting severa…
Experiments and theoretical modeling yielded significant progress towards understanding of Kerr-effect induced optical frequency comb generation in microresonators. However, the simultaneous interaction of hundreds or thousands of optical comb frequencies with the same number of resonator modes leads to complicated nonlinear dynamics that are far from fully understood. An important prerequisite for modeling the comb formation process is the knowledge of phase and amplitude of the comb modes as well as the detuning from their respective microresonator modes. Here, we present comprehensive measu…
We report on the fabrication of high-Q, fused-quartz microresonators and the parametric generation of a frequency comb with 36 GHz line spacing using them. We have characterized the intrinsic stability of the comb in both the time and frequency domains to assess its suitability for future precision metrology applications. Intensity autocorrelation measurements and line-by-line comb control reveal near-transform-limited picosecond pulse trains that are associated with good relative phase and amplitude stability of the comb lines. The comb's 36 GHz line spacing can be readily photodetected, whic…
We have investigated parametric seeding of a microresonator frequency comb (microcomb) by way of a pump laser with two electro-optic-modulation sidebands. We show that the pump-sideband spacing is precisely replicated throughout the microcomb's optical spectrum, and we demonstrate a record absolute line-spacing stability for microcombs of $1.6\times10^{-13}$ at 1 s. The spectrum of a parametric comb is complex, and often non-equidistant subcombs are observed. Our results demonstrate that parametric seeding can not only control the subcombs, but can lead to the generation of a strictly equidist…
The phenomenon of synchronization occurs universally across the natural sciences and provides critical insight into the behavior of coupled nonlinear dynamical systems. It also offers a powerful approach to robust frequency or temporal locking in diverse applications including communications, superconductors, and photonics. Here we report the experimental synchronization of two coupled soliton modelocked chip-based frequency combs separated over distances of 20 m. We show that such a system obeys the universal Kuramoto model for synchronization and that the cavity solitons from the microresona…
We numerically investigate the influence of high-order dispersion on both temporal and spectral characterizations of microresonator-based optical frequency combs. The moment method is utilized to study the temporal dynamics of intracavity solitons. The theoretical and numerical results indicate the temporal shifts are induced by high-odd-order dispersion rather than high-even-order dispersion. The role of high-order dispersion on the frequency comb envelopes is carefully elucidated through analyzing the intracavity Cherenkov radiations. We further demonstrate that the spectra envelope of an ul…
Taking advantage of an extended Lugiato--Lefever equation with third-order dispersion, we numerically show that dark cavity solitons formed in normal dispersion of microresonators are capable of emitting dispersive waves in both normal and anomalous dispersion regions, resembling the behavior of the commonly encountered bright cavity solitons. The generated dispersive waves can be accurately predicted by the dissipative radiation theory. In addition, we demonstrate the stability enhancement of Kerr frequency combs in normal dispersion regime in case the dispersive wave is emitted by dark solit…
Broadband Kerr combs with a flat comb spectral profile are expected in a number of applications, such as high-capacity optical communication. Here, we propose novel concentric dual-ring microresonators (DRMs) for advanced dispersion engineering to tailor the comb spectral profile. The dispersion can be flexibly engineered not only by the cross-section of the DRMs, but also by the gap between concentric dual-ring microresonators, which provides a new path to geometrically control the spectral profile of the soliton Kerr combs. An octave-spanning dissipative Kerr soliton comb with superior spect…
Dissipative Kerr solitons are localized structures that exist in optical microresonators. They lead to the formation of microcombs --- chip-scale frequency combs that could facilitate precision frequency synthesis and metrology by capitalizing on advances in silicon photonics. Previous demonstrations have mainly focused on anomalous dispersion microresonators. Notwithstanding, localized structures also exist in the normal dispersion regime in the form of circulating dark pulses, but their physical dynamics is far from being understood. Here, we report the discovery of reversible switching betw…
We demonstrate that the optical spectrum of a soliton microcomb generated in a microresonator can be coherently extended by using bichromatic pumping: one pump with a frequency in the anomalous dispersion regime of the microresonator is used to generate a bright soliton microcomb while a second pump in the normal dispersion regime both compensates the thermal effect of the microresonator and generates a second frequency comb via cross-phase modulation with the bright soliton, thus extending the spectrum of the microcomb. Experimental results for different microresonators show that the mode spa…
We predict the existence of a novel type of the flat-top dissipative solitonic pulses, "platicons", in microresonators with normal group velocity dispersion (GVD). We propose methods to generate these platicons from cw pump. Their duration may be altered significantly by tuning the pump frequency. The transformation of a discrete energy spectrum of dark solitons of the Lugiato-Lefever equation into a quasicontinuous spectrum of platicons is demonstrated. Generation of similar structures is also possible with bi-harmonic, phase/amplitude modulated pump or via laser injection locking.
Microresonator-based optical frequency combs, or "microcombs", have attracted lots of attention in the last few years thanks to their promising applications in telecommunications, spectroscopy and optical clocks. The process of comb generation in microresonators can be modelled in the frequency domain using coupled mode equations, and has also recently been successfully described in the time domain using a nonlinear Schrödinger equation known as the Lugiato-Lefever equation. Though time-domain approaches have brought many interesting insights for the understanding of microcombs, an intuitive f…
The formation of optical frequency combs (OFCs) by the parametric modulation of optical microresonators is commonly described by lumped-parameter models. However, these models do not consider the actual spatial distribution of the parametric modulation (SDPM). Here, we show that the effect of the SDPM becomes of special importance for an elongated SNAP bottle microresonator (SBM) having shallow nanometre-scale effective radius variation along its axial length. The advantage of SBMs compared to microresonators with different shapes (e.g., spherical and toroidal) is that SBMs, remaining miniatur…
A study is made of the nonlinear dynamics of dual pumped microresonator Kerr frequency combs described by a driven and damped nonlinear Schrödinger equation, with an additional degree of freedom in the form of the modulation frequency. A truncated four wave model is derived for the pump modes and the dominant sideband pair which is found to be able to describe much of the essential dynamical behaviour of the full equation. The stability of stationary states within the four wave model is investigated and numerical simulations are made to demonstrate that a large range of solutions, including ca…
Silicon nitride (Si$_3$N$_4$) is an ever-maturing integrated platform for nonlinear optics. Yet, due to the absence of second-order ($χ^{(2)}$) nonlinearity, Si$_3$N$_4$ is mostly considered for third-order ($χ^{(3)}$) nonlinear interactions. Recently, this limitation was overcome by optical poling in both Si$_3$N$_4$ waveguides and microresonators via the photogalvanic effect, resulting in the inscription of quasi-phase-matched $χ^{(2)}$ gratings. Here, we report cascaded nonlinear effects in a normal dispersion Si$_3$N$_4$ microresonator with combined $χ^{(2)}$ and $χ^{(3)}$ nonlinearities. …
Investigations of frequency combs in $χ^{(3)}$ optical microresonators are burgeoning nowadays. Changeover to $χ^{(2)}$ resonators promises further advances and brings new challenges. Here, the comb generation entails not only coupled first and second harmonics (FHs and SHs) and two dispersion coefficients, but also a substantial difference in the group velocities - the spatial walk-off. We predict walk-off controlled highly stable comb generation, drastically different from that known in the $χ^{(3)}$ case. This includes the general notion of antiperiodic state, formation of coherent antiperi…
We use a drop-port geometry to study power transfer in silicon nitride on-chip microresonator frequency comb generators. In sharp contrast with the traditional transmission geometry, we observe smooth output spectra with comparable powers in the pump and adjacent comb lines. An observation of saturation in the drop-port output power is explained semi-empirically by introducing pump saturation into a coupling of modes model. Autocorrelation measurements are performed on the drop-port output, without the need to filter out or suppress the strong pump line as is necessary in thru-port experiments…
Phase coherently linking optical to radio frequencies with femtosecond mode-locked laser frequency combs enabled counting the cycles of light and is the basis of optical clocks, absolute frequency synthesis, tests of fundamental physics, and improved spectroscopy. Using an optical microresonator frequency comb to establish a coherent link between optical and microwave frequencies will extend optical frequency synthesis and measurements to areas requiring compact form factor, on chip integration and comb line spacing in the microwave regime, including coherent telecommunications, astrophysical …
Microresonator frequency combs harness the nonlinear Kerr effect in an integrated optical cavity to generate a multitude of phase-locked frequency lines. The line spacing can reach values in the order of 100 GHz, making it an attractive multi-wavelength light source for applications in fiber-optic communications. Depending on the dispersion of the microresonator, different physical dynamics have been observed. A recently discovered comb state corresponds to the formation of mode-locked dark pulses in a normal-dispersion microcavity. Such dark-pulse combs are particularly compelling for advance…
The potential of frequency comb spectroscopy has aroused great interest in generating mid-infrared frequency combs in the integrated photonic setting. However, despite remarkable progress in microresonators and quantum cascade lasers, the availability of suitable mid-IR comb sources remains scarce. Here, we present a new approach for the generation of mid-IR microcombs through cascaded three-wave-mixing. By pumping a CdSiP$_2$ microresonator at 1.55 $μ$m wavelength with a low power continuous wave laser, we generate $χ^{(2)}$ frequency combs at 3.1 $μ$m wavelength, with a span of about 30 nm. …
Optical injection locking is implemented to faithfully transfer the phase noise of a dissipative Kerr microresonator soliton comb in addition to the amplification of the Kerr comb. Unlike Er-doped fiber and semiconductor optical amplifiers, the optical injection locking amplifies the comb mode without degrading the optical signal-to-noise ratio. In addition, we show that the residual phase noise of the optical injection locking is sufficiently small to transfer the relative phase noise of comb modes (equivalent to the repetition frequency) of low phase noise Kerr combs, concluding that the opt…
We investigate the threshold of $χ^{(2)}$ frequency comb generation in lithium niobate whispering gallery microresonators theoretically and experimentally. When generating a frequency comb via second-harmonic generation, the threshold for the onset of cascaded second-order processes leading to a comb is found to be approximately 85 $μ$W. The second-harmonic generation efficiency up to this value is in excellent agreement with a previously known theoretical framework. This framework is extended here, showing that the onset of cascaded $χ^{(2)}$ processes and the maximum of the second-harmonic g…
Guided-mode coupling in a microresonator generally manifests itself through avoided crossings of the corresponding resonances. This coupling can strongly modify the resonator local effective dispersion by creating two branches that have dispersions of opposite sign in spectral regions that would otherwise be characterized by either positive (normal) or negative (anomalous) dispersion. In this paper, we study, both analytically and computationally, the general properties of nonlinear frequency comb generation at an avoided crossing using the coupled Lugiato-Lefever equation. In particular, we f…
We demonstrate a new technique for the experimental measurement of the spectral coherence of microresonator optical frequency combs. Specifically, we use a spectral interference method, typically used in the context of supercontinuum generation, to explore the variation of the complex degree of first order coherence across the full comb bandwidth. We measure the coherence of two different frequency combs, and observe wholly different coherence characteristics. In particular, we find that the observed dynamical regimes are similar to the stable and unstable modulation instability regimes report…
The realization of ultrahigh quality (Q) resonators regardless of the underpinning material platforms has been a ceaseless pursuit, because the high Q resonators provide an extreme environment of storage of light to enable observations of many unconventional nonlinear optical phenomenon with high efficiencies. Here, we demonstrate an ultra-high Q factor (7.1*10^6) microresonator on the 4H-silicon-carbide-on-insulator (4H-SiCOI) platform in which both \c{hi}^(2) and \c{hi}^(3) nonlinear processes of high efficiencies have been generated. Broadband frequency conversions, including second-, third…
We experimentally and theoretically investigate the dynamics of microresonator-based frequency comb generation assisted by mode coupling in the normal group-velocity dispersion (GVD) regime. We show that mode coupling can initiate intracavity modulation instability (MI) by directly perturbing the pump-resonance mode. We also observe the formation of a low-noise comb as the pump frequency is tuned further into resonance from the MI point. We determine the phase-matching conditions that accurately predict all the essential features of the MI and comb spectra, and extend the existing analogy betw…
Optical frequency combs are revolutionising modern time and frequency metrology. In the past years, their range of applications has increased substantially, driven by their miniaturisation through microresonator-based solutions. The combs in such devices are typically generated using the third-order $χ^{(3)}$-nonlinearity of the resonator material. An alternative approach is making use of second-order $χ^{(2)}$-nonlinearities. While the idea of generating combs this way has been around for almost two decades, so far only few demonstrations are known, based either on bulky bow-tie cavities or o…
Microresonator-based Kerr frequency comb (microcomb) generation can potentially revolutionize a variety of applications ranging from telecommunications to optical frequency synthesis. However, phase-locked microcombs have generally had low conversion efficiency limited to a few percent. Here we report experimental results that achieve ~30% conversion efficiency (~200 mW on-chip comb power excluding the pump) in the fiber telecommunication band with broadband mode-locked dark-pulse combs. We present a general analysis on the efficiency which is applicable to any phase-locked microcomb state. Th…
The model, that is usually called Lugiato-Lefever equation (LLE), was introduced in 1987 with the aim of providing a paradigm for dissipative structure and pattern formation in nonlinear optics. This model, describing a driven, detuned and damped nonlinear Schroedinger equation, gives rise to dissipative spatial and temporal solitons. Recently, the rather idealized conditions, assumed in the LLE, have materialized in the form of continuous wave driven optical microresonators, with the discovery of temporal dissipative Kerr solitons (DKS). These experiments have revealed that the LLE is a perfe…
