Symmetry Breaking of Frequency Comb in Varying Normal Dispersion Fiber Ring Cavity

Abstract

We build on a previously reported frequency comb of mode spacing 0.136 nm in a fiber ring cavity of varying normal dispersion [1], to generate, for the first time, a frequency comb of mode spacing 0.144 nm centered at 978.544 nm to demonstrate the symmetry-breaking. By controlling the birefringence of the optical cavity through fiber stretching and polarization control, the spacing of the comb lines increases from 0.136 nm to 0.144 nm, and this small change in mode spacing generates very different spectral symmetry-breaking in the frequency comb relative to the frequency comb of mode spacing 0.136 nm. Interestingly, non-uniform depletion of primary modes is also observed. The experimental results are an important contribution in the continuing effort of understanding the dynamics of frequency combs involving large number of modes, nontrivial nonlinear waves and deterministic chaos.