Dissipative Kerr solitons in normal dispersion waveguides

Licentiate thesis, 2020

The microresonator comb (microcomb) is a laser source which generatesequally spaced coherent lines in the spectral domain. Having a miniaturefootprint and the potential of being low cost, it has attracted attention inmultiple applications. Demonstrations have included high-speed opticalcommunications, light detection and ranging, calibrating spectrographsfor exoplanet detection and optical clocks. These experiments relied onthe generation of dissipative Kerr solitons (DKS) which circulate in themicroresonator. The development of such waveforms is paramount forfurther advancement of the micrcomb.This thesis studies the dynamics of DKS in microresonators aim-ing at developing a low-cost, reliable and high-performing microcombsource. The investigation will cover both dark and bright DKS’s, whichare found respectively in normal and anomalous dispersion microres-onators. The dark DKS will be in center focus since it can providea relatively high comb power compared to other waveforms. The per-formance of microcombs in terms of line power is numerically exploredfor telecommunication purposes. The initiation of dark DKS from lin-early coupled microcavities is investigated, showing efficient, low-powergeneration from silicon nitride microresonators that are reproducible infabrication. These studies could facilitate reliable, low-powered, energy-efficient microcombs.