title: Photonic chip-based optical frequency comb using soliton Cherenkov radiation.
abstract: Optical solitons are propagating pulses of light that retain their shape because nonlinearity and dispersion balance each other. In the presence of higher-order dispersion, optical solitons can emit dispersive waves via the process of soliton Cherenkov radiation. This process underlies supercontinuum generation and is of critical importance in frequency metrology. Using a continuous wave-pumped, dispersion-engineered, integrated silicon nitride microresonator, we generated continuously circulating temporal dissipative Kerr solitons. The presence of higher-order dispersion led to the emission of red-shifted soliton Cherenkov radiation. The output corresponds to a fully coherent optical frequency comb that spans two-thirds of an octave and whose phase we were able to stabilize to the sub-Hertz level. By preserving coherence over a broad spectral bandwidth, our device offers the opportunity to develop compact on-chip frequency combs for frequency metrology or spectroscopy.
authors.affiliation: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Brasch
authors.affiliation: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Geiselmann
authors.affiliation: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Herr
authors.affiliation: Russian Quantum Center, Skolkovo 143025, Russia. Faculty of Physics, M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow 119991, Russia.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lihachev
authors.affiliation: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: M H P
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Pfeiffer
authors.affiliation: Russian Quantum Center, Skolkovo 143025, Russia. Faculty of Physics, M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow 119991, Russia.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Gorodetsky
authors.affiliation: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. tobias.kippenberg@epfl.ch.
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Kippenberg