Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: Microresonator-based optical frequency combs (``microcombs'') have attracted lots of attention in the past few years thanks to their promising applications in telecommunications, spectroscopy, and optical clocks. The process of comb generation in microresonators can be modeled in the frequency domain using coupled mode equations and has recently been successfully described in the time domain using a nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation known as the Lugiato-Lefever equation. Time-domain approaches have brought many interesting insights for the understanding of microcombs. In this paper we present an intuitive frequency-domain model of microcombs that describes the overall structure of the spectra in terms of a few collective excitations of groups of neighboring comb lines, which we term ``superoscillators.'' This approach ties in nicely with the recently developed time-domain model based on soliton crystals and links the microcomb generation process with frequency response theory.
Source: Physical Review A
Institutions: National Physical Laboratory, Xiamen University
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2596512042