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arXiv · 1401.2972

Experimental observation of the spontaneous breaking of the time-reversal symmetry in a synchronously-pumped passive Kerr resonator

Yiqing Xu·Stephane Coen
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Abstract

We experimentally observe a spontaneous temporal symmetry breaking instability in a coherently-driven passive optical Kerr resonator. The cavity is synchronously pumped by time-symmetric pulses yet we report output pulses with strongly asymmetric temporal and spectral intensity profiles, with up to 71% of the energy on the same side of the pump center frequency. The instability occurs above a certain pump power threshold but remarkably vanishes above a second threshold, in excellent agreement with theory. We also observe a generalized bistability in which an asymmetric output state coexists with a symmetric one in the same pumping conditions.

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Yiqing Xu, Stephane Coen. 2014-01-13. Experimental observation of the spontaneous breaking of the time-reversal symmetry in a synchronously-pumped passive Kerr resonator. https://doi.org/10.1364/ol.39.003492

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