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Liu ML, Wei ZQ, Zhu HT et al. Soliton microcombs in optical microresonators with perfect spectral envelopes. Opto-Electron Adv 8, 240257 (2025). doi: 10.29026/oea.2025.240257
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Article Open Access
Soliton microcombs in optical microresonators with perfect spectral envelopes
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Abstract
We theoretically and experimentally investigate thermal dynamics involved soliton microcomb generation in silicon oxynitride microresonators. Importantly, auxiliary laser heat balance scheme with flexible thermal manipulation is introduced to circumvent thermal instability and the intra-cavity temperature can be tuned from 60 °C to 41.5 °C via the commercial thermoelectric controller. As a result, various perfect soliton states with ultra-smooth spectral envelopes are observed on a well-designed and fabricated microresonator with homogeneous sidewall and thickness where spatial modes interaction and distortion are eliminated. The pre-reported spectral abrupt jumps due to mode hybridization are completely avoided and solitons tail oscillation vanishes simultaneously. This reported ideal coherent comb source without residual temporal and spectral noise will facilitate practical applications such as spectroscopy, ranging and astrocomb calibration.-
Keywords:
- perfect solitons /
- thermal dynamics /
- auxiliary laser heat balance /
- Raman effect
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References
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Liu ML, Wei ZQ, Zhu HT et al. Soliton microcombs in optical microresonators with perfect spectral envelopes. Opto-Electron Adv 8, 240257 (2025). doi: 10.29026/oea.2025.240257
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Figure 1.
The influences of thermal effects on soliton formation and auxiliary laser assisted tuning method. (a) For strong thermal effects of ζ = −1 × 104 (Ws)−1, intracavity energy evolution reflects soliton annihilation or in chaotic regime. Different color represents distinct microcomb routes and determined by intracavity energy instability. (b) For weak thermal effect of ζ = −5 × 103 (Ws)−1 solitons can always survive in all 20 scans. Calculated temporal profile (c-i) and spectral profile (c-ii) of chaotic state with only one pump. (c-iii) Schematic diagram of chaotic state with only one pump. Calculated temporal profile (d-i) and spectral profile (d-ii) of two solitons state with heat balance scheme. (d-iii) Schematic diagram of two solitons state with heat balance scheme.
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Figure 2.
Experimental setup and single perfect soliton. (a) Physical drawing of a microresonator. (b) Scanning electron microscope image of the microresonator. (c) Experimental setup for perfect soliton generation. ECDL, external cavity diode laser; EDFA, erbium-doped fiber amplifier; FPC, fiber polarization controller; Cir, circulator; TEC, thermoelectric controller; OSA, optical spectrum analyzer. The zoom in of the chip shows a scanning-electron micrograph of the waveguide cross-section. (d) Low-noise single soliton state (blue curve) with a sech2 fitting spectral profile (red dashed curve). (e) Microwave beat note of the photo-detected soliton.
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Figure 3.
(a–c) Experimentally measured spectra for 1-, 2- and 4-solion states, respectively. (d–f) Calculated different soliton states. Insets shows the corresponding temporal profile where oscillation is avoided.
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Figure 4.
(a–d) Experimentally measured spectra of different two solions states.
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Figure 5.
(a–d) Calculated spectra of different two-solion states. Insets show corresponding temporal profile.
