Modeling dispersive and active ring resonators with discrete optical components: from injected loops to mode-locked...

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Nonlinear Optics
• Optical Engineering

Background:

• Active ring resonators are crucial in various photonic applications.
• Existing models often rely on mean-field approximations, limiting accuracy.
• Modeling discrete optical elements within resonators presents a significant challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• Introduce a general framework for modeling active ring resonators with continuous and discrete elements.
• Develop a more accurate model by explicitly incorporating discrete components.
• Provide a foundation for analyzing complex resonator dynamics.

Main Methods:

• Utilize a two-time-variable formulation derived from the slowly varying envelope approximation.
• Integrate discrete optical components (modulators, couplers, absorbers) into the model.
• Employ auxiliary differential equations to address gain dynamics.

Main Results:

• Demonstrate enhanced simulation accuracy by explicitly including discrete elements.
• Show that the proposed framework avoids the limitations of mean-field approximations.
• Numerical simulations confirm model consistency and improved accuracy.

Conclusions:

• The developed framework offers a more accurate and computationally efficient method for modeling active ring resonators.
• Explicitly modeling discrete components is key to overcoming mean-field approximation limitations.
• The model provides valuable insights into the dynamics and applications of complex optical resonators.