Self-Starting Soliton–Comb Regimes in χ(2) Microresonators

Abstract

The discovery of stable and broad frequency combs in monochromatically pumped high-Q optical Kerr microresonators caused by the generation of temporal solitons can be regarded as one of the major breakthroughs in nonlinear optics during the last two decades. The transfer of the soliton–comb concept to χ(2) microresonators promises lowering of the pump power, new operation regimes, and entering of new spectral ranges; scientifically, it is a big challenge. Here we represent an overview of stable and accessible soliton–comb regimes in monochromatically pumped χ(2) microresonators discovered during the last several years. The main stress is made on lithium niobate-based resonators. This overview pretends to be rather simple, complete, and comprehensive: it incorporates the main factors affecting the soliton–comb generation, such as the choice of the pumping scheme (pumping to the first or second harmonic), the choice of the phase matching scheme (natural or artificial), the effects of the temporal walk off and dispersion coefficients, and also the influence of frequency detunings and Q-factors. Most of the discovered nonlinear regimes are self-starting—they can be accessed from noise upon a not very abrupt increase in the pump power. The soliton–comb generation scenarios are not universal—they can be realized only under proper combinations of the above-mentioned factors. We indicate what kind of restrictions on the experimental conditions have to be imposed to obtain the soliton–comb generation.