Generation of Bimodal Solitons in a Sapphire Whispering Gallery Mode Maser at Millikelvin Temperatures

TL;DR

This paper reports the experimental creation of bimodal solitons in a millikelvin cooled sapphire whispering gallery mode maser, revealing new nonlinear wave phenomena and potential applications in microwave systems.

Contribution

First demonstration of bimodal solitons in a solid-state millikelvin maser using a high-Q whispering gallery resonator with a dilute Fe3+ spin ensemble.

Findings

Observation of three distinct operational regimes: continuous wave, dense soliton, sparse soliton.

Identification of two signals near 12.04 GHz separated by 8 MHz from a 31 GHz pump.

Potential for new studies and applications of solitons in microwave frequency range.

Abstract

We present experimental observations of bimodal solitons in a solid state three-level maser cooled to millikelvin temperatures. The maser is built on a highly dilute $\textrm{Fe}^{3+}$ spin ensemble hosted by a high purity $\textrm{Al}_{2}\textrm{O}_{3}$ crystal constituting a high quality factor whispering-gallery-mode resonator. The maser is pumped through one of these modes, near 31 GHz, generating two signals near 12.04 GHz from two distinct modes, 8 MHz apart. The system demonstrates three regimes, namely, a continuous wave regime, a dense soliton regime and a sparse soliton regime. These results open new avenues for studying nonlinear wave phenomena using microwave systems as well as new applications of solitons in this part of the electromagnetic spectrum.