Parametrically driven Kerr cavity solitons

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the first experimental excitation of Kerr cavity solitons around twice their carrier frequency using parametric driving, revealing multiple phase-locked solitons and potential applications in random number generation and Ising machines.

Contribution

It introduces the novel concept of parametric driving of Kerr cavity solitons and experimentally confirms the coexistence of multiple phase-locked solitons in this regime.

Findings

Successful excitation of Kerr solitons at twice the carrier frequency

Coexistence of two phase-locked solitons in the same resonator

Potential application in random number generation and Ising machines

Abstract

Temporal cavity solitons are optical pulses that propagate indefinitely in nonlinear resonators. They are currently attracting a lot of attention, both for their many potential applications and for their connection to other fields of science. Cavity solitons are phase locked to a driving laser. This is what distinguishes them from laser dissipative solitons and the main reason why they are excellent candidates for precision applications such as optical atomic clocks. To date, the focus has been on driving Kerr solitons close to their carrier frequency, in which case a single stable localised solution exists for fixed parameters. Here we experimentally demonstrate, for the first time, Kerr cavity solitons excitation around twice their carrier frequency. In that configuration, called parametric driving, two solitons of opposite phase may coexist. We use a fibre resonator that incorporates a quadratically nonlinear section and excite stable solitons by scanning the driving frequency. Our experimental results are in excellent agreement with a seminal amplitude equation, highlighting connections to hydrodynamic and mechanical systems, amongst others. Furthermore, we experimentally confirm that two different phase-locked solitons may be simultaneously excited and harness this multiplicity to generate a string of random bits, thereby extending the pool of applications of Kerr resonators to random number generators and Ising machines.