Directly accessing octave-spanning dissipative Kerr soliton frequency combs in an AlN microring resonator

Abstract

Self-referenced dissipative Kerr solitons (DKSs) based on optical microresonators offer prominent characteristics including miniaturization, low power consumption, broad spectral range and inherent coherence for various applications such as precision measurement, communications, microwave photonics, and astronomical spectrometer calibration. To date, octave-spanning DKSs with a free spectral range (FSR) of ~1 THz have been achieved only in ultrahigh-Q silicon nitride microresonators, with elaborate wavelength control required. Here we demonstrate an octave-spanning DKS in an aluminium nitride (AlN) microresonator with moderate loaded Q (500,000) and FSR of 374 GHz. In the design, a TE00 mode and a TE10 mode are nearly degenerate and act as pump and auxiliary modes. The presence of the auxiliary resonance balances the thermal dragging effect in dissipative soliton comb formation, crucially simplifying the DKS generation with a single pump and leading to a wide single soliton access window. We experimentally demonstrate stable DKS operation with a record single soliton step (~80 pm) and octave-spanning bandwidth (1100-2300 nm) through adiabatic pump tuning and on-chip power of 340 mW. Our scheme also allows for direct creation of the DKS state with high probability and without elaborate wavelength or power schemes being required to stabilize the soliton behavior.

arXiv comment12 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, 5 pages supplementary with 4 figures

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• Dual-mode microresonators as straightforward access to octave-spanning dissipative Kerr solitons
• Thermal noise reduction in soliton microcombs via laser self-cooling
• Near octave-spanning perfect soliton crystals in AlN microresonators
• Programmable access to microresonator solitons with modulational sideband heating
• Optical microcombs in whispering gallery mode crystalline resonators with dispersive intermode interactions
• Frequency-comb-linearized, widely tunable lasers for coherent ranging
• Self-injection locking dynamics with Raman actions in AlN microresonators
• Octave-spanning, deterministic single soliton generation in 4H-silicon carbide-on-insulator microring resonators
• Thermally accessible broadband soliton microcombs in silicon carbide enabled by dynamic polarization control
• Engineered mode coupling in high-Q microresonators enables deterministic low-repetition-rate soliton microcombs