Integrated turnkey soliton microcombs

Boqiang Shen, Lin Chang (), Junqiu Liu, Heming Wang, Qi-Fan Yang, Chao Xiang, Rui Ning Wang, Jijun He, Tianyi Liu, Weiqiang Xie, Joel Guo, David Kinghorn, Lue Wu, Qing-Xin Ji, Tobias J. Kippenberg (), Kerry Vahala () and John E. Bowers
Additional contact information
Boqiang Shen: California Institute of Technology
Lin Chang: University of California Santa Barbara
Junqiu Liu: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)
Heming Wang: California Institute of Technology
Qi-Fan Yang: California Institute of Technology
Chao Xiang: University of California Santa Barbara
Rui Ning Wang: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)
Jijun He: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)
Tianyi Liu: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)
Weiqiang Xie: University of California Santa Barbara
Joel Guo: University of California Santa Barbara
David Kinghorn: University of California Santa Barbara
Lue Wu: California Institute of Technology
Qing-Xin Ji: California Institute of Technology
Tobias J. Kippenberg: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)
Kerry Vahala: California Institute of Technology
John E. Bowers: University of California Santa Barbara

Nature, 2020, vol. 582, issue 7812, 365-369

Abstract: Abstract Optical frequency combs have a wide range of applications in science and technology1. An important development for miniature and integrated comb systems is the formation of dissipative Kerr solitons in coherently pumped high-quality-factor optical microresonators2–9. Such soliton microcombs10 have been applied to spectroscopy11–13, the search for exoplanets14,15, optical frequency synthesis16, time keeping17 and other areas10. In addition, the recent integration of microresonators with lasers has revealed the viability of fully chip-based soliton microcombs18,19. However, the operation of microcombs requires complex startup and feedback protocols that necessitate difficult-to-integrate optical and electrical components, and microcombs operating at rates that are compatible with electronic circuits—as is required in nearly all comb systems—have not yet been integrated with pump lasers because of their high power requirements. Here we experimentally demonstrate and theoretically describe a turnkey operation regime for soliton microcombs co-integrated with a pump laser. We show the appearance of an operating point at which solitons are immediately generated by turning the pump laser on, thereby eliminating the need for photonic and electronic control circuitry. These features are combined with high-quality-factor Si3N4 resonators to provide microcombs with repetition frequencies as low as 15 gigahertz that are fully integrated into an industry standard (butterfly) package, thereby offering compelling advantages for high-volume production.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2358-x

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