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arXiv · 2402.08432

Rhythmic soliton interactions for integrated dual-microcomb spectroscopy

Zihao Wang·Yifei Wang·Baoqi Shi·Chen Shen·Wei Sun·Yulei Ding·Changxi Yang·Junqiu Liu·Chengying Bao
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Abstract

Rotation symmetry of microresonators supports the generation of phase-locked counter-propagating (CP) solitons that can potentially miniaturize dual-comb systems. Realization of these dual-comb compatible solitons in photonic integrated circuits remains a challenge. Here, we synthesized such CP solitons in an integrated silicon nitride microresonator and observed forced soliton oscillation due to rhythmic, time-varying soliton interactions. The interactions result in seconds mutual-coherence passively. Temporal motion in the soliton streams is discerned by measuring a quadratic-scaling frequency noise peaks and an inverse quadratic-scaling microcomb sidebands. By generating a CP soliton trimer to have two synchronized solitons in one of the orbiting directions, we resolve the incapability of measuring two unsynchronized CP soliton dimer pulses by optical cross-correlation, and show CP solitons undergo complex motion trajectory. We further prove that precise dual-comb spectroscopy with an acquisition time as short as 0.6 $\mu$s is feasible using these solitons, although the temporal motion limits the dynamic range. Besides revealing soliton interactions with different group velocities, our work propels the realization of photonic integrated dual-comb spectrometers with high passive coherence.

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Zihao Wang, Yifei Wang, Baoqi Shi, Chen Shen, Wei Sun, Yulei Ding, Changxi Yang, Junqiu Liu, Chengying Bao. 2024-02-13. Rhythmic soliton interactions for integrated dual-microcomb spectroscopy. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevx.15.011061

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