Soliton Pulses in Photonic Crystal Fabry-Perot Microresonators

TL;DR

This paper reports the first demonstration of dissipative Kerr solitons in a high-Q Fabry-Perot microresonator driven by continuous-wave lasers, enabling new dispersion engineering approaches and potential applications in various wavelengths.

Contribution

It introduces the first CW-driven DKS generation in Fabry-Perot microresonators using photonic crystal reflectors, expanding the design space beyond traditional resonator types.

Findings

Achieved high-Q (4 million) Fabry-Perot microresonator with DKSs

Demonstrated wafer-level fabrication of the resonator

Highlighted potential for dispersion engineering and wavelength extension

Abstract

Dissipative Kerr solitons (DKSs) in high-Q microresonators enable applications in sensing, communication, and signal processing. Until now, DKSs driven by continuous-wave (CW) lasers are exclusively generated in ring-type resonators. Complementary to ring-type resonators, Fabry-Perot resonators could enable new approaches to dispersion engineering, addressing a key challenge of DKS technology. However, DKS generation in a CW-driven Fabry-Perot microresonator has not yet been achieved. Here, we demonstrate for the first time CW-driven DKSs in a high-Q Fabry-Perot microresonator. Fabricated in a wafer-level process, two photonic crystal reflectors in a waveguide form the chip-integrated resonator and define its dispersion. The intrinsic Q-factor of 4 million is propagation-loss limited. In principle, each cell of the photonic crystal reflector can be tailored, opening a design space beyond traditional dispersion engineering, with potential for future extension of DKSs to visible and other currently inaccessible wavelengths. Beyond DKSs, this creates opportunities for filter-driven pulse formation, engineered spectra and broadband phase-matching in microresonators.