# Broadband Resonator-Waveguide Coupling for Efficient Extraction of Octave Spanning Microcombs

## TL;DR

This paper presents a novel pulley coupling scheme for microresonators that significantly improves the extraction efficiency of octave-spanning microcombs, especially at short wavelengths, by optimizing waveguide-resonator coupling.

## Contribution

It introduces a pulley waveguide design to enhance coupling uniformity across the octave, validated by coupled mode theory and experimental results.

## Key findings

- 20 dB improvement in short-wavelength extraction
- Good agreement between theory and experiment
- Enhanced microcomb extraction efficiency

## Abstract

Frequency combs spanning over an octave have been successfully demonstrated in Kerr nonlinear microresonators on-chip. These micro-combs rely on both engineered dispersion, to enable generation of frequency components across the octave, and on engineered coupling, to efficiently extract the generated light into an access waveguide while maintaining a close to critically-coupled pump. The latter is challenging as the spatial overlap between the access waveguide and the ring modes decays with frequency. This leads to strong coupling variation across the octave, with poor extraction at short wavelengths. Here, we investigate how a waveguide wrapped around a portion of the resonator, in a pulley scheme, can improve extraction of octave-spanning microcombs, in particular at short wavelengths. We use coupled mode theory to predict the performance of the pulley couplers, and demonstrate good agreement with experimental measurements. Using an optimal pulley coupling design, we demonstrate a 20~dB improvement in extraction at short wavelengths compared to straight waveguide coupling.