Hard and Soft Excitation Regimes of Kerr Frequency Combs

TL;DR

This paper theoretically investigates the stability and excitation regimes of Kerr frequency combs in nonlinear optical resonators, revealing the conditions for hard and soft excitation regimes and how to switch between them by adjusting pump parameters.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical framework for understanding and controlling the hard and soft excitation regimes in Kerr frequency comb generation.

Findings

Both hard and soft excitation regimes are possible in the studied resonators.

The excitation regime can be controlled by changing the pump parameters.

The study provides conditions for the stability of hyper-parametric oscillation.

Abstract

We theoretically study the stability conditions and excitation regimes of hyper-parametric oscillation and Kerr frequency comb generation in continuously pumped nonlinear optical resonators possessing anomalous group velocity dispersion. We show that both hard and soft excitation regimes are possible in the resonators. Selection between the regimes is achieved via change in the parameters of the pumping light.