TY - JOUR

T1 - Self-Starting Soliton–Comb Regimes in χ(2) Microresonators

AU - Smirnov, Sergey

AU - Podivilov, Evgeni

AU - Sturman, Boris

N1 - The work of S. S. was funded by the Russian Science Foundation (Grant No. 17-72-30006-P).

PY - 2023/6

Y1 - 2023/6

N2 - The discovery of stable and broad frequency combs in monochromatically pumped high-Q optical Kerr microresonators caused by the generation of temporal solitons can be regarded as one of the major breakthroughs in nonlinear optics during the last two decades. The transfer of the soliton–comb concept to (Formula presented.) microresonators promises lowering of the pump power, new operation regimes, and entering of new spectral ranges; scientifically, it is a big challenge. Here we represent an overview of stable and accessible soliton–comb regimes in monochromatically pumped (Formula presented.) microresonators discovered during the last several years. The main stress is made on lithium niobate-based resonators. This overview pretends to be rather simple, complete, and comprehensive: it incorporates the main factors affecting the soliton–comb generation, such as the choice of the pumping scheme (pumping to the first or second harmonic), the choice of the phase matching scheme (natural or artificial), the effects of the temporal walk off and dispersion coefficients, and also the influence of frequency detunings and Q-factors. Most of the discovered nonlinear regimes are self-starting—they can be accessed from noise upon a not very abrupt increase in the pump power. The soliton–comb generation scenarios are not universal—they can be realized only under proper combinations of the above-mentioned factors. We indicate what kind of restrictions on the experimental conditions have to be imposed to obtain the soliton–comb generation.

AB - The discovery of stable and broad frequency combs in monochromatically pumped high-Q optical Kerr microresonators caused by the generation of temporal solitons can be regarded as one of the major breakthroughs in nonlinear optics during the last two decades. The transfer of the soliton–comb concept to (Formula presented.) microresonators promises lowering of the pump power, new operation regimes, and entering of new spectral ranges; scientifically, it is a big challenge. Here we represent an overview of stable and accessible soliton–comb regimes in monochromatically pumped (Formula presented.) microresonators discovered during the last several years. The main stress is made on lithium niobate-based resonators. This overview pretends to be rather simple, complete, and comprehensive: it incorporates the main factors affecting the soliton–comb generation, such as the choice of the pumping scheme (pumping to the first or second harmonic), the choice of the phase matching scheme (natural or artificial), the effects of the temporal walk off and dispersion coefficients, and also the influence of frequency detunings and Q-factors. Most of the discovered nonlinear regimes are self-starting—they can be accessed from noise upon a not very abrupt increase in the pump power. The soliton–comb generation scenarios are not universal—they can be realized only under proper combinations of the above-mentioned factors. We indicate what kind of restrictions on the experimental conditions have to be imposed to obtain the soliton–comb generation.

KW - frequency comb

KW - lithium niobate

KW - microresonator

KW - phase matching

KW - soliton

KW - walk off

UR - https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85163810881&origin=inward&txGid=e16f75f4fd67f36786c61c2b7900d4b0

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/bc8c3612-a201-3f52-ae4e-82adda7a8580/

U2 - 10.3390/photonics10060640

DO - 10.3390/photonics10060640

M3 - Article

VL - 10

JO - Photonics

JF - Photonics

SN - 2304-6732

IS - 6

M1 - 640

ER -