Imaging soliton dynamics in optical microcavities

TL;DR

This paper introduces a high-resolution imaging technique that visualizes complex soliton dynamics in optical microcavities, enabling detailed study of their transient behaviors and interactions.

Contribution

A novel imaging method capable of capturing soliton motion with sub-picosecond resolution over long durations in microcavities.

Findings

Visualization of soliton formation, collisions, and decay.

Characterization of spectral breathing and transient behaviors.

Universal tool for complex soliton physics analysis.

Abstract

Solitons are self-sustained wavepackets that occur in many physical systems. Their recent demonstration in optical microresonators has provided a new platform for study of nonlinear optical physics with practical implications for miniaturization of time standards, spectroscopy tools and frequency metrology systems. However, despite its importance to understanding of soliton physics as well as development of new applications, imaging the rich dynamical behaviour of solitons in microcavities has not been possible. These phenomena require a difficult combination of high-temporal-resolution and long-record-length in order to capture the evolving trajectories of closely-spaced microcavity solitons. Here, an imaging method is demonstrated that visualizes soliton motion with sub-picosecond resolution over arbitrary time spans. A wide range of complex soliton transient behaviors are characterized in the temporal or spectral domain, including soliton formation, collisions, spectral breathing and soliton decay. This method can serve as a universal visualization tool for understanding complex soliton physics in microcavities.