Dispersion-less Kerr solitons in spectrally confined optical cavities

Area of Science:

• Nonlinear science
• Quantum information processing
• Optical physics

Background:

• Dissipative solitons are vital for chip-scale frequency combs used in communications and computing.
• Conventional soliton generation relies heavily on chromatic dispersion.
• Optically driven dissipative solitons are a recent focus in nonlinear optics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To report a novel class of solitons generated in spectrally confined optical cavities.
• To investigate soliton formation in the absence of chromatic dispersion.
• To explore the interplay between Kerr nonlinearity, spectral filtering, and optical gain.

Main Methods:

• Theoretical modeling of soliton dynamics in spectrally confined cavities.
• Experimental validation of dispersion-less soliton generation.
• Analysis of the relationship between spectral filtering and soliton properties.

Main Results:

• Stable dispersion-less dissipative solitons were generated in a regime with negligible dispersion.
• An infinite hierarchy of eigenfunctions was identified, arising from Kerr nonlinearity and spectral filtering.
• A link between dissipative and conservative solitons was found, forming Nyquist-pulse-like solitons with ultra-flat spectra.
• Dispersion-less soliton molecules and their transitions to single solitons were observed.

Conclusions:

• This work introduces a new paradigm for soliton generation, independent of chromatic dispersion.
• The findings expand the fundamental understanding of the dissipative soliton framework.
• New avenues are opened for creating soliton pulses and frequency combs with unique temporal and spectral characteristics.