Chaotic dynamics of frequency combs generated with continuously pumped nonlinear microresonators

TL;DR

This paper explores the chaotic behavior of optical frequency combs in nonlinear microresonators, revealing that chaos manifests as a flat spectral envelope and produces broad RF signals, through both theoretical and experimental methods.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the chaotic regimes of microresonator-generated frequency combs, combining theoretical analysis with experimental validation.

Findings

Chaotic regimes show a flat, symmetric spectral envelope.

Chaotic combs produce broad RF signals exceeding linear bandwidth.

Experimental and theoretical results align on chaos signatures.

Abstract

We theoretically and experimentally investigate the chaotic regime of optical frequency combs generated in nonlinear ring microresonators pumped with continuous wave light. We show that the chaotic regime reveals itself, in an apparently counter-intuitive way, by a flat top symmetric envelope of the frequency spectrum, when observed by means of an optical spectrum analyzer. The comb demodulated on a fast photodiode produces a noisy radio frequency signal with an spectral width significantly exceeding the linear bandwidth of the microresonator mode.