Integrated Optical Vortex Microcomb

Bo Chen,1, ∗ Yueguang Zhou,2, ∗ Peinian Huang,1, ∗ Chaochao Ye,2, ∗ Qian Cao,3, ∗ Yang Liu,2 Chanju Kim,2 Kresten
Yvind,2 Jin Li,4 Chunhua Dong,4 Songnian Fu,5 Qiwen Zhan,3 Xuehua Wang,1, † Minhao Pu,2, ‡ and Jin Liu1, §
1 State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, School of Physics,
School of Electronics and Information Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China
2 DTU Electro, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark
3 School of Optical-Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China
4 CAS Key Laboratory of Quantum Information, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China
5 Institute of Advanced Photonics Technology, School of Information Engineering,
Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China
(Dated: December 16, 2022)
arXiv:2212.07641v1 [physics.optics] 15 Dec 2022

The explorations of physical degrees of freedom with infinite dimensionalities, such as orbital angular
momentum and frequency of light, have profoundly reshaped the landscape of modern optics with rep-
resentative photonic functional devices including optical vortex emitters1–3 and frequency combs4–6 . In
nanophotonics, whisper gallery mode microresonators naturally support orbital angular momentum of
light7 and have been demonstrated as on-chip emitters of monochromatic optical vortices8 . On the other
hand, whisper gallery mode microresonators serve as a highly-efficient nonlinear optical platform for
producing light at different frequencies - i.e., microcombs9 . Here, we interlace the optical vortices and
microcombs by demonstrating an optical vortex comb on an III-V integrated nonlinear microresonator.
The angular-grating-dressed nonlinear microring simultaneously emits up to 50 orbital angular momen-
tum modes that are each spectrally addressed to the frequency components ((longitudinal whispering
gallery modes) of the generated microcomb. We further show that the integrated vortex comb with var-
ied orbital angular momenta distributed across different frequencies exhibits unprecedented advantages
in the synthesis of spatio-temporal optical pulses with time-varying orbital angular momenta. This work
may immediately boost the development of integrated nonlinear/quantum photonics for exploring funda-
mental optical physics and advancing photonic quantum technology.

Photons with helical phase fronts can carry unlimited, but relies on light scattering while the latter requires good
quantized amount of orbital angular momentum (OAM)10 and suppression of light scattering). Here, we demonstrate a
therefore serve as an enabling technology with applications conceptually new class of nanophotonic devices, vortex mi-
across fundamental physics3 , optical communications11 and crocombs, on an integrated AlGaAs photonic platform23,24 . A
quantum photonics1 . Circular optical resonators such as delicate resonator design balances the light confinement and
microdisks or microrings sustain whisper gallery modes vortex emission, where the scattering (emission) loss induced
(WGMs) naturally carrying OAM. The introduction of by angular gratings is compensated by the ultra-high non-
periodic angular gratings to the WGM resonator collectively linearity of AlGaAs-on-insulator (AlGaAsOI) waveguides23 .
scatters the WGMs to the free space, leading to on-chip We show that such a vortex microcomb is capable of emitting
emissions of optical vortices8 . Compared to other on-chip a massive assembly of spectrally multiplexed optical vortices,
solutions of vortex beam generators, e.g., metasurfaces12,13 each translated from the corresponding spectral component
and fork gratings14 , microresonator vortex emitters benefit of the microcomb. The special configuration of varied OAMs
from strong light-matter interactions due to the prolonged distributed over different frequencies promises unprecedented
photon lifetimes and enhanced light intensities. For example, advantages in the generations of spatiotemporal beams with
spontaneous and stimulated emissions can be dramatically unique dynamic features25,26 . In particular, self-torque
enhanced by the cavity quantum electrodynamics effect, facil- pulses with time-varying OAMs26,27 are accessible from our
itating the realization of highly-efficient OAM single-photon device with low energy consumption, small device footprint,
sources15,16 and low-threshold vortex microlasers17–19 . engineerable OAM configuration and wide spectral coverage.
Hitherto, optical vortex emitters based on either passive or
active microrings are operated monochromatically. On the Our devices consist of a high-Q microring with inner side-
other hand, integrated microresonators in nonlinear materials wall gratings made from the emerging AlGaAsOI platform
enable Kerr comb generation (KCG), revolutionizing applica- exhibiting tight mode confinements and strong optical non-
tions in timekeeping, telecommunication, chemical sensing, linearities for low-threshold microcomb generations23,24 . The
distance ranging, etc9,20 . Unlike the OAM emitters, the vortex microcomb [Fig. 1] is driven by a continuous wave
microcombs rely on high-quality (Q) factor microresonators (CW) pump that initializes optical parametric oscillation
with an extremely low cavity roundtrip loss21,22 . Though (OPO) and cascaded four-wave mixing (FWM) between the
microresonators support OAM and KCG, the developments adjacent WGMs of the microring, resulting in the generation
of microresonator-based vortex emitters and comb generators of microcombs with equidistant sidebands. Each comb line
have been detached from each other due to their contradicting corresponds to a WGM with an azimuthal number m, where
requirements regarding cavity structure scattering (the former the angular gratings establish a modal relationship between
 2

Self-torque Pulse

Dispersive Medium

𝜙 𝛺

2 1 0 -1 -2

Frequency Comb (ω) Orbital Angular Momentum (l)

Vortex
Microcomb

CW Laser

FIG. 1: Schematic of generating self-torque pulses from the vortex microcomb. The angular-grating-addressed nonlinear microring emits
multiple optical vortices with each OAM mode (right side) in a different frequency (left side). A dispersive medium is employed to generate
spatio-temporal optical pulses with varying OAMs.

the emitted optical vortices and the WGMs8 . The generated The experimental setup for characterizing the vortex comb
comb lines - WGMs - are consequently ejected upwards to is schematically shown in Fig. 3a. Fig. 3b presents the full
the free space, which forms multiple optical vortices with comb spectrum spanning from 1480 nm to 1680 nm. All
topological charges of l = m − N (N is the number of periods the generated comb lines were ejected to the free space by
of the angular grating). By passing the vortex comb through the embedded angular gratings and further spatially separated
a dispersive medium, self-torque pulses with time-varying by an off-chip transmission grating to resolve different OAM
OAMs can be generated, as elaborated in Fig. (4). modes. We imaged the far-field patterns of each optical vortex
from l = −4 to l = 4 with a high-sensitivity CCD mounted on
a movable stage. The direct imaging of the far-field emissions
The device was fabricated on the AlGaAsOI platform [see
resulted in clockwise (CW) and counterclockwise (CCW) in-
Fig. S1 of SM]. Fig. 2a presents scanning electron microscope
terference patterns [Fig. 3c] which can be faithfully repro-
(SEM) images of a 25-µm-radius microring coupled with a
duced by numerical simulations with an internal dipole source
bus waveguide. Fig. 2b shows the zoomed coupling region,
placed in the microring, as shown in Fig. 3d [see more discus-
where the angular gratings can be clearly identified. To
sions in Fig. S(4,5) of SM]. Such interferometric behaviors
mitigate the scattering loss of the fundamental TE00 mode,
have been readily observed in the optical vortices from both
a multi-mode waveguide (380 nm × 750 nm) exhibiting a
low-Q GaAs15 and high-Q SiN microrings28 . The OAM na-
normal dispersion is used [see Fig. S2 of SM]. The mode
ture was further confirmed by interfering the upwards-emitted
profile is superimposed in the cross-section SEM image of
photons with a reference beam transmitted from the waveg-
the microring in Fig. 2c. The grating protrusion is designed to
uide output, as presented in Fig. 3e. Before the interference, a
30 nm to achieve appreciable efficiencies for vortice ejection
quarter waveplate was employed to project vectorial reference
and high-Qs for comb generation28 . The transmission spectra
beams with topological charge l to the circular polarization
for different resonances of the microring are presented in
basis, forming left-handed polarized beams with l 0 = |l − 1|.
Fig. 2(d-g), where mode-splittings are presented for all
The measured interference patterns therefore exhibited spiral
the resonances. For resonances with non-zero topological
arms equal to |l − 1|, as confirmed by the numerical simula-
charges22 (see Fig. 2(e-g)), only small mode-splittings (<1
tions in Fig. 3f (see Fig. S6 of SM). For the vortex beams with
GHz) are induced by the counter-propagating mode coupling
large topological charges, e.g., l = −5 to l = –13, the CW
due to the unavoidable fabrication imperfections. One can
and CCW interference patterns looked complicated due to the
observe a pronounced mode splitting of 9.3 GHz in Fig. 2d,
superpositions of azimuthal and axial components of the cav-
which is an inherent characteristic feature for the zero-order
ity field (see Fig. S7 of SM), which make it challenging to
(l = 0) cavity resonance of the vortex emitter8,27 . The
quantitatively compare all the features between experiments
zero-order mode splitting is dependent on the mode-coupling
and simulations, as presented in Fig.3(g,h). In addition, spiral
strength and can be tailored by controlling the grating
arms for high-order vortex beams become vague [Fig. 3(d,e)],
protrusion, which could be employed to generate low-noise
preventing clear identifications of the topological charges. To
phase-locking comb states and tuning the free spectral ranges
reliably extract the high-order topological charges of the vor-
(FSRs) of the comb states for engineering the self-torque
tex beams, we projected the CW/CCW intedrference patterns
pulses29,30 , see Fig. S(3) of SM.
to the linear polarization basis, forming clear standing-wave
 3

a b

d e f g

FIG. 2: Characterizations of the AlGaAs microring. (a) SEM image of the fabricated device. (b) Zoom-in of white dashed line highlighted
area in (a), showing inner sidewall angular gratings. (c) SEM image of the cross-section of microring with TE00 mode superimposed. (d-f)
Transmission spectra of the resonances corresponding to (d) l = 0, (e) l = −1, and (f) l = −2 OAM modes. (g) Transmission spectrum of the
resonance with the highest intrinsic Q of 410,000. The waveguide cross-section dimension: 380×750 nm2 and angular grating feature size 30
nm.

patterns with number of the anti-modes equal to l 0 = 2|l − 1| lated comb spectra together with the intensity and phase pro-
[see Fig. S(7) of SM], as presented in Fig. 3(i,j). We use such file for each mode. For both mode-locking states, we simu-
a method to successfully quantify the topological charge up to late 7 comb lines with radial polarization35 . For the funda-
25, as shown in Fig. S(8) of SM. The emitted vortices feature mental mode-locking state, the topological charge l carried
simultaneous high-degrees of OAM mode purity and ejection by the microcomb varies from -3 to +3 in an interval of 1.
efficiency [see Fig. S(9,10) of SM], which is consistent with For the harmonic mode-locking, l varies from -6 to +6 in
the recent study on high-Q microring OAM emitters28 . an interval of 2. With the spectral phase properly managed
[see discussion of Fig. S(11,12)], the output of the vortex mi-
The vortex microcombs may immediately be employed crocomb forms a self-torque pulse carrying time-dependent
to explore optical physics and advance quantum technology. OAM. Figure 4(b,e) show 3D intensity iso-surface plots of the
In particular, sculpturing light in the spatiotemporal domain self-torque pulses. Fig. 4(c,f) plot the modal decompositions
with increasingly complex topological structures represents of the self-torque pulses in time. Comparing with the HHG
the most cutting-edge frontier for both fundamental physics approach, generation of self-torque space-time pulses by us-
and applied optics. Some of the recent examples are spa- ing vortex microcombs offers significant advantages. First,
tiotemporal optical vortex31 , toroidal vortex32 , and toroidal the vortex combs only require a CW laser instead of high-
pulse33 . One particular class of spatiotemporal wavepacket power ultrafast pulses. Second, the topological configurations
that is directly accessible with our vortex microcomb plat- of the OAM can be versatilely engineered by tuning FSR of
form is the self-torque beams, i.e., optical pulses with time- the comb states, which is not possible with the HHG approach.
dependent OAMs. The self-torque pulses so far have only Third, the frequency of the self-torque beams from vortex mi-
been created in extremely-ultraviolet regime by using high- crocombs can be straightforwardly expanded from visible to
harmonic generation (HHG) processes of near-infrared (NIR) NIR by employing different material platforms. Finally, our
ultrashort pulses27 . We, now, show, in Fig. 4, self-torque op- integrated devices are much more compact and suitable for
tical pulses can be versatilely synthesized with the vortex mi- large-scale production using modern nanofabrication technol-
crocombs. Here, we simulate vortex microcombs operated in ogy. In quantum optics, high-dimensional OAM entangled
the fundamental mode-locking and harmonic mode-locking quantum states of light can be created from the vortex micro-
states which could be engineered by how the microcomb is combs with potential applications in stronger violations of lo-
initialized with the pumping30,34 . Fig. 4(a,d) show the simu-
 4

b
l = -9 (Pump)
l=0
l = -4 l = -13
l=4

OAM Order l=4 l=3 l=2 l=1 l=0 l = -1 l = -2 l = -3 l = -4

Exp.
Far field WO

c
Reference
Sim.

d
Exp.

e
Far field W
Reference
Sim.

f
OAM Order l = -5 l = -6 l = -7 l = -8 l = -9 l = -10 l = -11 l = -12 l = -13
Exp.
Far field WO

g
Polarizer
Sim.

h
Exp.
Far field W

i
Polarizer
Sim.

FIG. 3: Characterizations of the vortex frequency microcomb. (a) Schematic of the experimental setup. A tunable CW laser is amplified
by an EDFA, and its polarization state is controlled by a FPC before coupling to a waveguide via a lensed fiber. The transmitted light from
waveguide output is collected by the other lensed fiber and sent to either an OSA or to the interference path. The ejected optical vortices are
either directly imaged on a CCD or combined with a reference beam and then imaged on a CCD after spatial separations by a transmission
grating. FPC: fiber polarization controller. EDFA: Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier. BS: beam splitter. OSA: optical spectrum analyzer. (b)
Spectrum of the microcomb measured by OSA. The light blue area denotes the comb lines with OAM charge from 4 to -4, the light red area
represents the comb lines with OAM charge from -5 to -13. (c) Measured and simulated (d) far-field patterns without the reference beam for
l from 4 to -4. (e) Measured and simulated (f) far-field patterns with the reference beam for l from 4 to -4. (g) Measured and (h) simulated
far-field patterns for l from -5 to -13. (i) Measured and simulated (j) far-field patterns projected to linear polarization basis for l from -5 to -13.

cal realism36,37 and generating high-dimensional multiphoton vortices and microcombs. Our device can emit up to 50 OAM
entanglement for future quantum technologies . modes, each translated from corresponding Kerr comb lines
generated by an AlGaAs microring. We further present the
We have demonstrated a conceptually new nanophotonic unprecedented advantages of vortex microcombs in the gener-
device by fusing two separately developing fields, optical
 5

a d

+1 0 -1 -2 +2 0 -2
+3+2 -3 +6 +4 -4
-6

b e

c f

FIG. 4: Synthesis of self-torque pulses using vortex microcombs. (a), (d): Simulated microcomb structure for fundamental mode-locking
(FSR = 500 GHz) and harmonic mode-locking (FSR = 1000 GHz). Total of 7 comb lines are simulated with their topological charge varying
from -3 to +3 and from -6 to +6. (b), (e): Space-time intensity profile of the microcomb output. The output self-torque pulse carries time-
varying OAM. The plot shows the iso-surface for the wavepacket at 80/60/30% of its peak intensity. The red/blue color corresponds to OAM
with a positive/negative sign. (c), (f): Modal decomposition of the self-torque pulse in the time domain.

ations of self-torque pulses. III-V compound semiconductors

employed in this work feature both second- and third-order Author contributions J. L conceived the project. B. C,
nonlinearities and engineerable bandgaps, which are highly Y. G. Z, and Q. C performed to the numerical simulations.
beneficial for integrated nonlinear photonics. Furthermore, Y. G. Z, C. C. Y and Y. L fabricated the devices. B. C, P. N. H,
the direct bandgap of AlGaAs provides opportunities of J. Li Y. L and Y. G. Z built the setup and characterized the
monolithic integrations with on-chip lasers and detectors. devices. B. C., P. N, H, C. L, L. Y, Y. G. Z, C. J. K, Q. C,
Our method of generating vortex microcombs can be easily Q. W. Z, M. H. P and J. L analyzed the data. M. H. P and J. L
implemented in other material platforms such as SiN, SiC, wrote the manuscript with inputs from all authors. C. H. D,
AlN and LiNbO3 etc, providing exciting opportunities to K. Y, Q. W. Z, X. H. W, M. H. P and J. L supervised the
integrated photonics for harnessing structured light matter project.
interactions.

Acknowledgements This research is supported by National Competing interests The authors declare no competing
Key R&D Program of China (2021YFA1400800), the Na- financial interests.
tional Natural Science Foundation of China (62035017) and
Guangdong Special Support Program (2019JC05X397). We Data and materials availability The data sets will be avail-
thank Siyuan Yu and Jie Liu for loaning the equipments. able upon reasonable requests.
 6

∗ These authros contributed equally 763, 2020.

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