# Laser Cavity-Soliton Micro-Combs

## TL;DR

This paper introduces laser cavity-soliton micro-combs, a highly efficient, background-free class of solitary waves in micro-cavities, enabling low-power, tunable frequency combs with potential for widespread practical applications.

## Contribution

It demonstrates the generation of laser cavity-soliton micro-combs with significantly lower power requirements and tunable repetition rates, merging properties of cavity-solitons with micro-resonator physics.

## Key findings

- 50 nm wide soliton combs achieved
- Power consumption an order of magnitude lower than existing methods
- Repetition rate tunable over several megahertz

## Abstract

The field of micro-cavity based frequency combs, or 'micro-combs'[1,2], has recently witnessed many fundamental breakthroughs[3-19] enabled by the discovery of temporal cavity-solitons, self-localised waves sustained by a background of radiation usually containing 95% of the total power[20]. Simple methods for their efficient generation and control are currently researched to finally establish micro-combs as out-of-the-lab widespread tools[21]. Here we demonstrate micro-comb laser cavity-solitons, an intrinsically highly-efficient, background free class of solitary waves. Laser cavity-solitons have underpinned key breakthroughs in semiconductor lasers[22,23] and photonic memories[24-26]. By merging their properties with the physics of both micro-resonators[1,2] and multi-mode systems[27], we provide a new paradigm for the generation and control of self-localised pulses in micro-cavities. We demonstrate 50 nm wide soliton combs induced with average powers one order of magnitude lower than those typically required by state-of-the-art approaches[26]. Furthermore, we can tune the repetition-rate to well over a megahertz with no-active feedback.

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Source: https://tomesphere.com/paper/1902.09930