Breaking the efficiency limitations of dissipative Kerr solitons using nonlinear couplers  

作　　者：Ming Li Xiao-Xiao Xue Yan-Lei Zhang Xin-Biao Xu Chun-Hua Dong Guang-Can Guo Chang-Ling Zou 

机构地区：[1]CAS Key Laboratory of Quantum Information,University of Science and Technology of China,Hefei 230026,China [2]CAS Centerfor Excellence in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics,University of Science and Technology of China,Hefei 230026,China [3]Department of Electronic Engineering,Beijing National Research Center for Information Science and Technology,Tsinghua University Beijing 100084,China

出　　处：《Science China(Physics,Mechanics & Astronomy)》2024年第3期88-94,共7页中国科学：物理学、力学、天文学（英文版）

基　　金：supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11934012, 12293053, 12374361, 11904316, 61690192, U21A20433, 12104441, 12293052, and U21A6006);the Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Grant Nos. 2008085QA34, and 2108085MA22);the Major Scientific Project of Zhejiang Laboratory (Grant No. 2020LC0AD01);supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities and University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) Research Funds of the Double First-Class Initiative;supported by the Supercomputing System in the Supercomputing Center of USTC and the USTC Center for Micro and Nanoscale Research and Fabrication。

摘　　要：Dissipative Kerr solitons(DKS) have long been suffering from poor power conversion efficiency when driven by continuous-wave lasers. By deriving the critical coupling condition of a multimode nonlinear optics system in a generalized theoretical framework,two efficiency limitations of the conventional pump method of DKS are revealed: the effective coupling rate is too small and is also power-dependent. A general approach is provided to resolve this challenge by introducing two types of nonlinear couplers to couple the soliton cavity and CW input through nonlinear processes. The collective coupler opens multiple coupling channels and the self-adaptive coupler builds a power-independent effective external coupling rate to the DKS for approaching the generalized critical coupling condition, which promises near-unity power conversion efficiencies. For instance, a conversion efficiency exceeding 90% is predicted for aluminum nitride microrings with a nonlinear coupler utilizing second-harmonic generation. The mechanism applies to various nonlinear processes, including Raman and Brillouin scattering, and thus paves the way for micro-solitons toward practical applications.

关 键 词：Kerr frequency comb conversion efficiency nonlinear coupler 

分 类 号：TN248[电子电信—物理电子学]