Laser cavity-soliton microcombs

Tools

Bao, Hualong and Cooper, Andrew and Rowley, Maxwell and Di Lauro, Luigi and Totero Gongora, Juan Sebastian and Chu, Sai T. and Little, Brent E. and Oppo, Gian-Luca and Morandotti, Roberto and Moss, David J. and Wetzel, Benjamin and Peccianti, Marco and Pasquazi, Alessia (2019) Laser cavity-soliton microcombs. Nature Photonics, 13 (6). pp. 384-389. ISSN 1749-4885 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-019-0379-5)

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Abstract

Microcavity-based frequency combs, or ‘microcombs’ have enabled many fundamental breakthroughs through the discovery of temporal cavity-solitons. These self-localized waves, described by the Lugiato–Lefever equation, are sustained by a background of radiation usually containing 95% of the total power. Simple methods for their efficient generation and control are currently being investigated to finally establish microcombs as out-of-the-lab tools. Here, we demonstrate microcomb laser cavity-solitons. Laser cavity-solitons are intrinsically background-free and have underpinned key breakthroughs in semiconductor lasers. By merging their properties with the physics of multimode systems, we provide a new paradigm for soliton generation and control in microcavities. We demonstrate 50-nm-wide bright soliton combs induced at average powers more than one order of magnitude lower than the Lugiato–Lefever soliton power threshold, measuring a mode efficiency of 75% versus the theoretical limit of 5% for bright Lugiato–Lefever solitons. Finally, we can tune the repetition rate by well over a megahertz without any active feedback.

ORCID iDs

Bao, Hualong, Cooper, Andrew, Rowley, Maxwell, Di Lauro, Luigi, Totero Gongora, Juan Sebastian, Chu, Sai T., Little, Brent E., Oppo, Gian-Luca ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5376-4309, Morandotti, Roberto, Moss, David J., Wetzel, Benjamin, Peccianti, Marco and Pasquazi, Alessia;
  • Item type:Article
    ID code:67427
    Dates:
    Date
    Event
    1 June 2019
    Published
    11 March 2019
    Published Online
    1 February 2019
    Accepted
    Subjects:Science > Physics > Optics. Light
    Department:Faculty of Science > Physics
    Depositing user: Pure Administrator
    Date deposited:26 Mar 2019 13:17
    Last modified:17 Dec 2024 22:32
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/67427
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