No Arabic abstract
We present a stability analysis of the Lugiato-Lefever model for Kerr optical frequency combs in whispering gallery mode resonators pumped in the anomalous dispersion regime. This article is the second part of a research work whose first part was devoted to the regime of normal dispersion, and was presented in ref. cite{Part_I}. The case of anomalous dispersion is indeed the most interesting from the theoretical point of view, because of the considerable variety of dynamical behaviors that can be observed. From a technological point of view, it is also the most relevant because it corresponds to the regime where Kerr combs are predominantly generated, studied, and used for different applications. In this article, we analyze the connection between the spatial patterns and the bifurcation structure of the eigenvalues associated to the various equilibria of the system. The bifurcation map evidences a considerable richness from a dynamical standpoint. We study in detail the emergence of super- and sub-critical Turing patterns in the system. We determine the areas were bright isolated cavity solitons emerge, and we show that soliton molecules can emerge as well. Very complex temporal patterns can actually be observed in the system, where solitons (or soliton complexes) co-exist with or without mutual interactions. Our investigations also unveil the mechanism leading to the phenomenon of breathing solitons. Two routes to chaos in the system are identified, namely a route via the so called secondary combs, and another via soliton breathers. The Kerr combs corresponding to all these temporal patterns are analyzed in detail, and a discussion is led about the possibility to gain synthetic comprehension of the observed spectra out of the dynamical complexity of the system.
We raise a detuning-dependent loss mechanism to describe the soliton formation dynamics when the lumped filtering operation is manipulated in anomalous group velocity dispersion regime, using stability analysis of generalized Lugiato-Lefever equation.
The regions of existence and stability of dark solitons in the Lugiato-Lefever model with normal chromatic dispersion are described. These localized states are shown to be organized in a bifurcation structure known as collapsed snaking implying the presence of a region in parameter space with a finite multiplicity of dark solitons. For some parameter values dynamical instabilities are responsible for the appearance of oscillations and temporal chaos. The importance of the results for understanding frequency comb generation in microresonators is emphasized.
The model, that is usually called Lugiato-Lefever equation (LLE), was introduced in 1987 with the aim of providing a paradigm for dissipative structure and pattern formation in nonlinear optics. This model, describing a driven, detuned and damped nonlinear Schroedinger equation, gives rise to dissipative spatial and temporal solitons. Recently, the rather idealized conditions, assumed in the LLE, have materialized in the form of continuous wave driven optical microresonators, with the discovery of temporal dissipative Kerr solitons (DKS). These experiments have revealed that the LLE is a perfect and exact description of Kerr frequency combs - first observed in 2007, i.e. 20 years after the original formulation of the LLE. - and in particular describe soliton states. Observed to spontaneously form in Kerr frequency combs in crystalline microresonators in 2013, such DKS are preferred state of operation, offering coherent and broadband optical frequency combs, whose bandwidth can be extended exploiting soliton induced broadening phenomena. Combined with the ability to miniaturize and integrate on chip, microresonator based soliton Kerr frequency combs have already found applications in self-referenced frequency combs, dual-comb spectroscopy, frequency synthesis, low noise microwave generation, laser frequency ranging, and astrophysical spectrometer calibration, and have the potential to make comb technology ubiquitous. As such, pattern formation in driven, dissipative nonlinear optical systems is becoming the central Physics of soliton micro-comb technology.
A generalized Lugiato-Lefever equation is numerically solved with a Newton-Raphson method to model Kerr frequency combs. We obtain excellent agreement with past experiments, even for an octave-spanning comb. Simulations are much faster than with any other technique despite including more modes than ever before. Our study reveals that Kerr combs are associated with temporal cavity solitons and dispersive waves, and opens up new avenues for the understanding of Kerr comb formation.
We analyze dark pulse Kerr frequency combs in optical resonators with normal group-velocity dispersion using the Lugiato-Lefever model. We show that in the time domain these correspond to interlocked switching waves between the upper and lower homogeneous states, and explain how this fact accounts for many of their experimentally observed properties. Modulational instability does not play any role in their existence. Furthermore, we provide a detailed map indicating where stable dark pulse Kerr combs can be found in parameter space, and how they are destabilized for increasing values of frequency detuning.