Stokes solitons in optical microcavities

• Published in: Nature physics Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 53 - 57
• Main Authors: Yang, Qi-Fan, Yi, Xu, Yang, Ki Youl, Vahala, Kerry
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.01.2017; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 639/624/399/1097; 639/624/400/1118; Atomic; Classical and Continuum Physics; Complex Systems; Condensed Matter Physics; Conveying; Dispersion (wave); Fluid flow; Lasers; letter; Mathematical and Computational Physics; Microcavities; Molecular; Nonlinear systems; Optical and Plasma Physics; Optics; Photonics; Physics; Solitons; Spectroscopy; Spectrum analysis; Theoretical; Trapping
• ISSN: 1745-2473; 1745-2481
• DOI: 10.1038/nphys3875

Solitonic modes that are redshifted due to a Raman-related effect are reported in optical microcavities, and termed Stokes solitons. Solitons are wave packets that resist dispersion through a self-induced potential well. They are studied in many fields, but are especially well known in optics on account of the relative ease of their formation and control in optical fibre waveguides 1 , 2 . Besides their many interesting properties, solitons are important to optical continuum generation 3 , in mode-locked lasers 4 , 5 , and have been considered as a natural way to convey data over great distances 6 . Recently, solitons have been realized in microcavities 7 , thereby bringing the power of microfabrication methods to future applications. This work reports a soliton not previously observed in optical systems, the Stokes soliton. The Stokes soliton forms and regenerates by optimizing its Raman interaction in space and time within an optical potential well shared with another soliton. The Stokes and the initial soliton belong to distinct transverse mode families and benefit from a form of soliton trapping that is new to microcavities and soliton lasers in general. The discovery of a new optical soliton can impact work in other areas of photonics, including nonlinear optics and spectroscopy.