2020/07/30 by Nicolas Englebert, Carlos Mas Arabí, Englebert, Nicolas +7 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Fiber Laser Technologies #FOS: Physical sciences #Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications #Optics (physics.optics) #Photonic and Optical Devices
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2007.15630
openalex publication_date 2020/07/30 · openalex created_date 2021/05/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Optical frequency combs are lightwaves composed of a large number of equidistant spectral lines. They are important for metrology, spectroscopy, communications and fundamental science. Frequency combs are most often generated by exciting dissipative solitons in lasers or in passive resonators, both of which suffer from significant limitations. Here, we show that the advantages of each platform can be combined. We introduce a novel kind of soliton, called active cavity soliton, hosted in coherently driven lasers pumped below the lasing threshold. We use an active fibre resonator and measure high peak power solitons on a low power background, in excellent agreement with simulations of a generalized Lugiato-Lefever equation. Moreover, we find that amplified spontaneous emission has negligible impact on the soliton's stability. Our results open up novel avenues for frequency comb formation by showing that coherent driving and incoherent pumping can be efficiently combined to generate a high-power ultra-stable pulse train.