Hybridization of Kerr Solitons in Coupled Microresonators

TL;DR

This paper predicts and designs a novel hybridization of Kerr solitons in coupled microresonators, revealing new coherent structures with potential for advanced optical frequency combs.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of fully coherent hybrid Kerr solitons in coupled resonators and provides a theoretical framework for their experimental realization.

Findings

Hybrid Kerr solitons exhibit broad, flat spectra near the pump mode.

Coherent structures form in supermodes via four-wave mixing.

Potential applications include improved optical frequency comb generation.

Abstract

Recent advances in manufacturing photonic integrated devices enable efficient coupling between high-Q microresonators in both linear and nonlinear regimes, creating a tunable, complex, hybridized optical system. Considering two coupled microresonators with normal and anomalous dispersion and equal free spectral range (FSR), we theoretically predict a novel nonlinear phenomenon: fully coherent hybridization of dissipative Kerr solitons (DKS) and propose a realistic integrated photonic design for its experimental observation. Using the Lugiato-Lefever equations in the supermode basis, we show that the emergent picture of inter-resonator DKS interactions can be understood as the formation of coherent structures in both supermodes generated by an unusual four-wave mixing process. The found hybridized DKS states can exhibit a broad, flat spectral profile near the pumped mode and remarkable oscillatory features in the spectral wings, promising broad applications in the generation and control of optical Kerr frequency combs.