Deterministic generation and switching of dissipative Kerr soliton in a thermally controlled micro-resonator

Abstract

In this paper, we first experimentally demonstrate deterministic generation and switching of dissipative Kerr solitons (DKSs) in a thermally controlled micro-ring resonator based on high-index doped silica glass platform. In our scheme, an auxiliary laser is introduced to timely balance the intra-cavity heat fluctuation. By decreasing the operation temperature through a thermo-electric cooler, primary-, chaotic-comb and soliton crystal are firstly generated, then increasing the temperature, DKSs switching and single soliton are robustly accessed, which is independent of the tuning speed. During the switching process, varieties of DKSs are identified by tens of the characteristic “soliton-steps”. Besides, by simply changing the operation temperature under which the DKSs are formed, the center wavelength of dispersive waves could be tuned in a broadband range. When the micro-ring resonator operating at temperature larger than 63.5 °C, avoided mode-crossing free soliton can be obtained. Our results are favorable for study of on-chip soliton dynamics and practical nonlinear applications.