Dynamics of soliton crystals in optical microresonators
Dynamics of soliton crystals in optical microresonators
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DOI：
10.1038/s41567-019-0635-0
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发表时间：
2019-10-01
期刊：
影响因子：
19.6
通讯作者：
Kippenberg, Tobias J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Karpov, Maxim;Pfeiffer, Martin H. P.;Kippenberg, Tobias J.
光学微谐振腔中的耗散克尔孤子将非线性光学物理与光子集成技术相结合。它们在从光学相干通信到天体物理光谱仪校准的许多应用中都很有前景，并且对物理科学也具有根本的兴趣。耗散克尔孤子可以形成各种稳定状态，包括呼吸子和多孤子形成。在这些状态中，孤子晶体脱颖而出：由连续波腔内驱动场调制而成的时间有序孤子脉冲系综。然而，到目前为止，孤子晶体的动力学和它们的无缺陷生成仍未被探索。在这里，我们证明了驱动光学微谐振器的混沌运行机制显著影响孤子晶体的动力学。我们实现了完全孤子晶体态的确定性生成，它对应于一个稳定的、无缺陷的腔内光脉冲晶格。我们揭示了一个临界泵浦功率，在此功率以下，孤子激发的随机过程突然变成确定性的，这使得完美的孤子晶体能够无故障、不依赖于器件。我们还证明了这些状态的切换及其与瞬态混沌状态的关系。最后，我们报告了在孤子晶体中观察到的其他动力学现象，包括呼吸子的形成，完美孤子晶体之间的转变，它们的熔化和再结晶。
Dissipative Kerr solitons in optical microresonators combine nonlinear optical physics with photonic-integrated technologies. They are promising for a number of applications ranging from optical coherent communications to astrophysical spectrometer calibration, and are also of fundamental interest to the physical sciences. Dissipative Kerr solitons can form a variety of stable states, including breathers and multiple-soliton formations. Among these states, soliton crystals stand out: temporally ordered ensembles of soliton pulses, which are regularly arranged by a modulation of the continuous-wave intracavity driving field. To date, however, the dynamics of soliton crystals and their defect-free generation remain unexplored. Here, we show that the chaotic operating regimes of driven optical microresonators significantly impact the dynamics of soliton crystals. We realize deterministic generation of perfect soliton crystal states, which correspond to a stable, defect-free lattice of intracavity optical pulses. We reveal a critical pump power, below which the stochastic process of soliton excitation abruptly becomes deterministic, which enables faultless, device-independent access to perfect soliton crystals. We also demonstrate the switching of these states and its relation to the regime of transient chaos. Finally, we report on other dynamical phenomena observed in soliton crystals including the formation of breathers, transitions between perfect soliton crystals, their melting and recrystallization.