Monostable dissipative Kerr solitons

Kerr microcombs hold the promise of bringing frequency combs onto the chip and into a variety of applications requiring low size, weight, power, and cost. However, reliable Kerr microcomb generation is hindered by the thermal effect and multistability of dissipative Kerr solitons (DKSs). Past approaches toward Kerr microcomb reliability include either deterministic single-soliton generation or self-starting soliton behavior but not both. Here we describe a regime of DKSs that is both deterministic and self-starting, in which only a single soliton can stably exist. We term this new DKS regime monostable DKSs (MS-DKSs) as all other optical behaviors, such as continuous-wave-only and multiple solitons, are fundamentally forbidden by the design. We establish a graphical model to describe MS-DKSs and discuss the design principles of MS-DKSs. We numerically demonstrate the MS-DKS behavior in an example periodically poled lithium niobate microring resonator. (C) 2021 Optical Society of America

Automated summary

Kerr microcombs hold great potential for compact and cost-effective frequency comb applications, but their reliability is hindered by thermal effects and the behavior of dissipative Kerr solitons (DKSs). This study introduces a new regime of DKSs termed monostable DKSs (MS-DKSs), which are both deterministic and self-starting, allowing for stable operation with a single soliton.