Modulational instability of nonlinear polarization mode coupling in microresonators

We investigate frequency comb generation in the presence of polarization effects induced by nonlinear mode coupling in microresonator devices. A set of coupled temporal Lugiato-Lefever equations are derived to model the propagation dynamics, and an in-depth study is made of the modulational instability of their multistable homogeneous steady-state solutions. It is shown that new kinds of instabilities can occur for co-propagating fields that interact through nonlinear cross-phase modulation. These instabilities display properties that differ from their scalar counterpart, and are shown to result in the generation of new types of incoherently coupled frequency comb states. (C) 2018 Optical Society of America