Eigenvalue spectrum analysis for temporal signals of Kerr optical frequency combs based on nonlinear Fourier transform**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61475099 and 61922040), Program of State Key Laboratory of Quantum Optics and Quantum Optics Devices, China (Grant No. KF201701), and the Key R&D Program of Guangdong Province, China (Grant No. 2018B030325002).

Abstract

Based on the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) with damping, detuning, and driving terms describing the evolution of signals in a Kerr microresonator, we apply periodic nonlinear Fourier transform (NFT) to the study of signals during the generation of the Kerr optical frequency combs (OFCs). We find that the signals in different states, including the Turing pattern, the chaos, the single soliton state, and the multi-solitons state, can be distinguished according to different distributions of the eigenvalue spectrum. Specially, the eigenvalue spectrum of the single soliton pulse is composed of a pair of conjugate symmetric discrete eigenvalues and the quasi-continuous eigenvalue spectrum with eye-like structure. Moreover, we have successfully demonstrated that the number of discrete eigenvalue pairs in the eigenvalue spectrum corresponds to the number of solitons formed in a round-trip time inside the Kerr microresonator. This work shows that some characteristics of the time-domain signal can be well reflected in the nonlinear domain.