Pulsed driving of Kerr microresonators represents a promising avenue for the efficient generation of soliton states associated with coherent optical frequency combs. The underlying physics has not, however, yet been comprehensively investigated. Here, we report on a numerical and theoretical study of the impact of de-synchronization between the periodic pump field and the train of solitons circulating in the cavity. We show that de-synchronization can affect the soliton configurations that can be sustained for given parameters, and that it can be leveraged to guarantee operation in the attractive single-soliton regime. We also reveal that the interplay between pump-resonator de-synchronization and stimulated Raman scattering can give rise to rich dynamics that explain salient features observed in recent experiments. Our work elucidates the dynamics of Kerr cavity solitons in the presence of pulsed driving fields, and could facilitate the development of efficient microresonator frequency comb systems.
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