Self emerging laser cavity solitons as dominant attractor of a microcomb system

Speaker: Prof. Alessia Pasquazi

(Professor of Nonlinear Optics, Ernest Rutherford Fellow, ERC Laureate, Emergent Photonics Research Centre and Dept. of Physics, 含羞草视频)

Title: Self emerging laser cavity solitons as dominant attractor of a microcomb system

Abstract: Optical frequency comb in microresonators, or ‘microcombs’, are optical sources composed of a set of equally spaces frequency lines obtained in nonlinear microcavities usually by Kerr nonlinearity. The discovery of dissipative temporal cavity solitons has been a fundamental breakthrough and allowed to achieve a broad, smooth spectrum particularly suitable for metrological comb applications.

More recently, we demonstrated that it is possible to generate localized pulses in a configuration where the micro-cavity is inserted in a fiber laser loop. We reported the observation of laser cavity-solitons [1], which have previously attracted large attention, especially in spatial configurations. By merging their properties with the physics of both micro-resonators and multi-mode systems, this scheme represents a fundamentally new paradigm for the generation, stabilization, and control of solitary optical pulses in micro-cavities.

In this framework, it is important to discuss the main physical features of these types of waves, including the energy efficiency and their dynamical properties, which are key for the initiation and recovery of the system. Moreover, we recently demonstrated that they can self-emerge and robustly recover [2]. 

Here we discuss the fundamental mechanism that transforms the laser cavity solitons in the dominant attractors of a microcomb system based on a Kerr microresonator nested in an amplifying cavity. Particularly, we discuss the effect of the slow nonlinearities of the system and how they allow the robust emergence of solitary waves in our system.