2020/02/28 by Su-Peng Yu, Daniel C. Cole, Hojoong Jung +3 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Fiber Laser Technologies #Kerr effect #Nanophotonics #Nonlinear Photonic Systems #Nonlinear optics #Nonlinear system #Photonic Crystals and Applications #Photonic crystal #Photonics #Resonator #Soliton #nlin.PS #physics.optics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41566-021-00800-3
main text 6 pages, 4 figures; supplemental 4 pages, 2 figures
arxiv created 2020/02/28 · openalex created_date 2020/03/06 · openalex publication_date 2021/04/29 · arxiv updated 2021/05/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Complex systems are a proving ground for fundamental interactions between components and their collective emergent phenomena. Through intricate design, integrated photonics offers intriguing nonlinear interactions that create new patterns of light. In particular, the canonical Kerr-nonlinear resonator becomes unstable with a sufficiently intense traveling-wave excitation, yielding instead a Turing pattern composed of a few interfering waves. These resonators also support the localized soliton pulse as a separate nonlinear stationary state. Kerr solitons are remarkably versatile for applications, but they cannot emerge from constant excitation. Here, we explore an edge-less photonic-crystal resonator (PhCR) that enables spontaneous formation of a soliton pulse in place of the Turing pattern. We design a PhCR in the regime of single-azimuthal-mode engineering to re-balance Kerr-nonlinear frequency shifts in favor of the soliton state, commensurate with how group-velocity dispersion balances nonlinearity. Our experiments establish PhCR solitons as mode-locked pulses by way of ultraprecise optical-frequency measurements, and we characterize their fundamental properties. Our work shows that sub-wavelength nanophotonic design expands the palette for nonlinear engineering of light.