Deterministic generation of a perfect soliton crystal with a saturable absorber

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to deterministically generate perfect soliton crystals in optical microresonators using a saturable absorber, enabling stable, high-repetition-rate frequency combs with controlled soliton numbers.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach employing a saturable absorber to achieve deterministic formation of perfect soliton crystals in microresonators.

Findings

PSC formation is deterministic with the saturable absorber.

The number of solitons can be controlled by input power and absorber parameters.

The method yields stable, high-power, high-repetition-rate frequency combs.

Abstract

We numerically investigate the deterministic generation of a perfect soliton crystal (PSC) in an optical microresonator functionalized with a saturable absorber (SA). The SA allows the direct formation of a PSC from an initial, periodic Turing roll. It prevents passage through a chaotic state, which induces a stochastic nature as regards the number of generated dissipative Kerr solitons. We show that PSCs form deterministically, and the number is controlled by adjusting the input power and SA parameter. Our work provides a simple approach for obtaining a stable PSC that offers an ultra-high repetition rate and a high comb output power.