Topological dissipative Kerr soliton combs in a valley photonic crystal resonator

TL;DR

This paper proposes a theoretical design for a valley photonic crystal resonator that generates topologically protected dissipative Kerr soliton combs, demonstrating robustness and potential for on-chip applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel topological resonator design that supports protected Kerr soliton combs, advancing nonlinear topological photonics.

Findings

Topological resonator modes can be observed in the proposed design.

The evolution of optical frequency combs from Turing rolls to solitons is demonstrated.

The generated soliton combs are robust against structural disorders.

Abstract

Topological phases have become an enabling role in exploiting new applications of nonlinear optics in recent years. Here we theoretically propose a valley photonic crystal resonator emulating topologically protected dissipative Kerr soliton combs. It is shown that topological resonator modes can be observed in the resonator. Moreover, we also simulate the dynamic evolution of the topological resonator with the injection of a continuous-wave pump laser. We find that the topological optical frequency combs evolve from Turing rolls to chaotic states, and eventually into single soliton states. More importantly, such dissipative Kerr soliton combs generated in the resonator are inborn topologically protected, showing robustness against sharp bends and structural disorders. Our design supporting topologically protected dissipative Kerr soliton combs could be implemented experimentally in on-chip nanofabricated photonic devices.