Advances in Resonator-Based Kerr Frequency Combs With High Conversion Ef Ciencies

npj | nanophotonics Review
https://doi.org/10.1038/s44310-024-00030-9
Advances in resonator-based Kerr

frequency combs with high conversion
efficiencies
Check for updates
1,2 1,2 1,2 1,2 1,2 2
Xucheng Zhang , Chunxue Wang , Zhibo Cheng , Congyu Hu , Xingchen Ji & Yikai Su
Recent developments in resonator-based Kerr frequency combs promise excellent applications in a

wide range of fields such as biosensing, spectroscopy, optical communications, light detection and
ranging (LiDAR), frequency synthesis, astronomical detection, and quantum optics. A key figure of
1234567890():,;
1234567890():,;
merit (FOM) for Kerr frequency combs is the pump-to-comb conversion efficiency, which is critical for
applications requiring sufficient comb power and low power consumption. In this review, we first
discuss the limited conversion efficiency of dissipative Kerr soliton in an anomalous dispersion
microresonator based on its underlying physical characteristics. And then, we summarize the recent
advances in Kerr frequency combs with high conversion efficiencies in both anomalous and normal
dispersion regimes. We classify them according to various soliton states, excitation methods as well
as novel material platforms. The final section of the paper presents an overview of current progress and
glances at potential directions for future research.
Benefitting from advanced micro/nanofabrication technologies, Kerr fre- thermal-optical effect, one solution is using microresonators with a low
quency comb generation based on ultra-high-quality (Q) microresonators is thermal-optic coefficient, such as magnesium fluoride (MgF2)30–34. Another
a technique with the potential to revolutionize a variety of applications such solution is realizing the intracavity thermal equilibrium, and various
as high-speed data transmission1–5, LiDAR6–8, spectroscopy9–12, optical schemes have been implemented, such as power-kicking35–37, thermal
clocks13–16, microwave photonics17–20, machine learning21,22, astronomical tuning38–41, auxiliary-laser-assistance42–45, phase modulation46,47, photo-
detection23,24, and quantum optics25–28. Over the past decade, significant refractive effect48,49, pulse pumping50–54, and self-injecting-locking55–61.
progresses have been made towards integrated microresonator combs (also Accompanying the exploration of enabling robust DKS access, rich types of
called “microcombs”) by using continuous-wave (CW) lasers—in two dif- DKS states have been discovered in anomalous GVD regime, such as
ferent group-velocity dispersion (GVD) regimes. For platforms displaying breathers62–65, Stokes soliton66,67, soliton crystals49,68–70, soliton molecules71,
anomalous GVD, dissipative Kerr soliton (DKS) microcombs are generated and laser cavity soliton72–74. Different from the Kerr soliton frequency combs
through a double balance between parametric gain and optical losses, Kerr with various derivatives generated in the anomalous GVD regime, dark
nonlinearity and dispersion29. These self-confined waves exhibit a soliton (or dark pulse) is deemed as the exclusive mode-locked localized
hyperbolic-secant squared (sech2) profile in both the time and frequency reduction structure in the normal GVD regime. Dark soliton generally
domains, and illustrate remarkable coherence30. Physically, DKS can be manifested as intensity dips embedded in a high-intensity constant back-
spontaneously organized when the driven CW laser, with an appropriate ground with a complex temporal structure and a spectrum with a flat-
power, sweeps across a resonance of the microresonator from the blue to red topped envelope in the frequency domain39,40,65,75,76. Compared with the
detuning regime. In this process, the states of microcombs experience a bright solitons and soliton frequency combs generated in microresonators
continuous evolution from the primary combs to modulation instability with anomalous dispersion, dark solitons are less sensitive to the system
(MI) combs, and (breathing) multi-soliton combs30. When the multi-soliton perturbations and have higher power conversion efficiency. These unique
state is generated from the chaotic MI state, the intracavity power drops advantages have facilitated research on dark solitons and attracted
dramatically and results in pump frequency shifting out of the cavity increasing interest in many practical areas39,76–78. All of the above achieve-
resonance through thermo-optical effect. Moreover, the randomness of the ments suggest that microresonator-based Kerr frequency combs can pro-
number of solitons further complicates this process. To overcome the strong vide an ideal testbed for nonlinear physics and allow for the realization of a
1
John Hopcroft Center for Computer Science, School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
2
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Optical Communication Systems and Networks, Department of Electronic Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University,
Shanghai 200240, China. e-mail: [email protected]
npj Nanophotonics | (2024)1:26 1

https://doi.org/10.1038/s44310-024-00030-9 Review
portable integrated photonic device for use in out-of-the-laboratory trace presents a triangular resonance shape with increasing intensity oscil-
applications. lations before the pump reaches the zero-detuning point, as shown in
Despite the discovery of rich physical phenomena—including Fig. 1b. This process can be divided into three states to depict the successive
breathers, Stokes solitons, soliton crystals, soliton molecules, laser cavity evolution of the intracavity optical field in the blue detuning regime, which
solitons, and dark solitons—relevant to DKS, and deeper insights into the includes the primary comb (I), subcomb (II), and MI comb (III). The
dynamics of this new category of laser sources have been revealed, corresponding optical spectra are shown in Fig. 1c. (2) The triangular
expanding the potential applications for comb-based integrated photonics, resonance shape deviates into discrete steps when the pump scans in the red
the quality of the generated microcombs, especially the power conversion detuning regime, indicating the formation of dispersive solitons and a
efficiency limits its practical application scenario. Taking frequency combs decrease in the number of solitons. (3) The spectral shape of the comb
as the carriers in communications as an example, the key parameter is the spectrum exhibits a sech2 functional form of a single-soliton state and a
comb-line power, which should be greater than 1 mW as the data channel modulated envelope for multi-soliton states. In the time domain, the output
for modulation and detection79. A low pump-to-comb conversion efficiency consists of ultrashort pulses with a period equal to the round-trip time or a
would require high-power sources and complex servo systems (e.g., thermal subharmonic thereof (Fig. 1e). (4) The DKSs states are fully coherent, as
management), which greatly offset the advantages of low power con- evidenced by the excellent low-noise characteristics of the corresponding
sumption and portability of integrated photonics. However, extensive the- beat notes (insets of Fig. 1d), and this coherence is reflected in the con-
oretical and experimental works have demonstrated the efficiency of single- sistency between the sech2-shaped power profile and spectral envelope for
soliton Kerr microcombs for a CW laser pump is limit to about 1%35,52,80–83. the single-soliton state (Fig. 1f).
The pump power required for holding the soliton in the anomalous dis- Taking advantage of the smooth spectral envelope and fixed temporal
persion regime is relatively higher compared to the maintained soliton spacing, single-soliton microcombs are favored for practical applications.
power, and a majority of pump power is transmitted directly at a through However, as aforementioned, the DKSs can be formed through MI by
port without coupling into the microresonator in order to satisfy the tuning the laser from the blue side of the resonance towards the red in a
detuning state for obtaining the soliton30. Fortunately, the demonstration of resonator with bistability, and it can only be maintained with the laser
dark soliton alleviated the difficulty of boosting the pump-to-comb power effectively red-detuned. The high laser detuning results in most of the pump
conversion efficiency77. Besides, with the development of fabrication process power being reflected, thus not coupled into the micro-resonator and
and improved dispersion/perturbation engineering, several approaches involved in the formation of DKSs. This imposes a fundamental limitation
have been proposed to increase the efficiency in a Kerr resonator, such as on the conversion efficiency, especially for the single-soliton state. It suffers
synchronously pulsed pumping50,52, steadily accessed multi-soliton based on from a sudden drop in microcombs power and exhibits a staircase step in
self-injection locking84, synthesized soliton crystals85, laser cavity soliton, transmission trace (Fig. 1b) when transitioning from multi-soliton states. In
and assisted auxiliary microresonator40,86. Representatively, a dark soliton addition, the conversion efficiency is further limited due to the saturation of
microcombs generated in a Si3N4 resonator with an on-chip conversion the parametric gain determined by the characteristics of the
efficiency above 20% has been utilized in a coherent communications microresonators80,87–89. In the case of single DKS microcombs generated in
scheme, realizing a bit-error rate (BER) below 10−15 with an aggregate data anomalous GVD regime, the comb lines carry less than 1% of the input
rate of 4.4 Tbps78. Dual three-soliton-state combs with slightly different line pump power. The low conversion efficiency significantly undermines the
spacing and a conversion efficiency of up to 40% have been demonstrated by practical appeal of single-soliton microcombs. Moreover, with the rapid
using the self-injection locking method and integrated as a coherent dual- development of modern micro/nanofabrication technologies, the power
comb spectrometer84. Nevertheless, significant improvement of conversion consumption of soliton microcombs decreases, leading to a lower power of
efficiency remains challenging, and there is no decisive approach to produce comb lines due to the relatively fixed parameter space for generating DKSs.
a high-efficiency Kerr frequency combs while combining other advantages The low pump-to-comb power conversion efficiency of conventional single-
(such as wide bandwidth, high comb-line power, low noise, narrow line- soliton microcombs has not been bolstered by the development trend of
width, etc.) that can offer a strong promise as a universal laser source for a low-power consumption and advanced micro-nanophotonics, and even has
variety of applications. gradually fallen out of line with the development needs of practical
In this review, we provide an overview of the recent developments in applications.
resonator-based Kerr frequency combs technology towards boosting the While the conversion efficiency of single-soliton microcombs is pri-
pump-to-comb power conversion efficiency. The paper is organized as marily determined by the inherent properties of DKS formed in micro-
follows: Firstly, we will start with the demonstration and analysis of the resonators, several parameters can affect the exact value of conversion
efficiency of single-soliton microcombs. Secondly, we will focus on the efficiency. Firstly, the power coupling coefficient between the micro-
emerging schemes for improving the conversion efficiency of Kerr fre- resonator and bus waveguide plays a crucial role. Figure 2a illustrates the
quency combs in both anomalous and normal GVD regimes, including dependence of nonlinear conversion efficiency and intracavity pulse energy
synchronously pulsed pumping, multi-soliton microcombs, soliton crystals, on the power coupling coefficient80, revealing a square root dependence of
dark solitons, laser cavity solitons, and assisted auxiliary microresonators. the conversion efficiency on the power coupling coefficient. Obviously, a
Finally, a brief summary and outlook on the underlying challenges for this larger power coupling coefficient allows more pump power to be coupled
field are presented. into the resonator for conversion into a microcomb, resulting in a higher
microcomb power being coupled out. Consequently, the increase in con-
Single-soliton microcombs in anomalous GVD regime version efficiency is accompanied by a decrease in intracavity pulse energy.
The demonstration of mode-locking DKS in a high-Q MgF2 microresonator In practice, increasing the power coupling coefficient is a straightforward
triggered a boom in the study of soliton microcombs and became a para- method to extract intracavity power from high-Q microresonators.
digm for the generation of temporal solitons and microcombs30. The Therefore, there is considerable research on microresonators with anom-
adopted experimental setup is shown in Fig. 1a, where a tunable narrow- alous and normal dispersions, operating in highly over-coupled regime to
linewidth laser is used as the pump and coupled into the MgF2 crystal generate microcombs with high pump-to-comb power conversion
whispering gallery microresonator with anomalous dispersion. By changing efficiency52,77,90–92. Secondly, a higher (anomalous) dispersion coefficient is
the laser frequency with an appropriate scanning speed to sweep over one beneficial to improve conversion efficiency. As shown in Fig. 2b, a micro-
cavity resonance from blue detuning to red detuning regime, DKSs are resonator waveguide with a higher dispersion coefficient (slot waveguide 2,
obtained and measured at the through port. In this work, several key features β2 = −87 ps2/km) can generate a microcomb with a narrower bandwidth,
of temporal solitons and soliton microcombs have been found and corresponding to a wider pulse and theoretically resulting in a higher
demonstrated repeatedly in subsequent studies: (1) the transmission power conversion efficiency80. Thirdly, the input (or pump) power exhibits a

Fig. 1 | Experimental demonstration of single-soliton Kerr combs in a MgF2 The insets show the radio frequency beatnote. e Measured frequency-resolved
microresonator using the frequency-scanning method. a Experimental setup for optical gating (FROG) traces of the two-soliton and single-soliton pulses. f The
DKS generation. b Transmission observed when scanning the CW laser over a reconstruction of power profile (the red dashed line with a sech2 shape) and phase
resonance from the blue detuning to red detuning regime (green shading). Solitons (the yellow solid line) of pulse (top panel), and sampled optical power of the output
are generated in the red detuning regime and then annihilated to form discrete steps over a duration of 40 ps (bottom panel) of the single-soliton pulses. OSA optical
in the further red detuning regime. The inset shows the Lorentzian resonance shape spectrum analyzer, ESA electrical spectrum analyzer, PD photodetector, LO local
of the cold microresonator (dashed line) and the triangular resonance shape under oscillator, FPC fiber polarization controller, EDFA erbium doped fiber amplifier.
the combined Kerr and thermal effects of the strongly driven microresonator (solid Images are adapted with permission from ref. 30. Copyright 2014 Springer Nature
line). c Optical spectra of three different states (marked in (b)) for the CW laser Limited.
scanning in the blue regime. d Optical spectra of Kerr combs with 2 and 1 solitons.
relationship between the reciprocal of square root and the conversion effi- where η is the conversion efficiency defined as the ratio of the total output
ciency, as illustrated in Fig. 2b, g80,81. As the pump power increases, the comb power excluding the pump mode to the input pump power, θ is the
conversion efficiency converges to a constant value due to the parametric power coupling coefficient, αi is the propagation loss coefficient, L is the
gain saturation effect. Fourthly, in the parameter space where DKS exists, resonator length, β2 and γ are the dispersion and Kerr coefficients, respec-
the conversion efficiency increases with larger pump detuning (i.e., positive- tively, Pin is the input pump power, and FSR is the cavity free spectral range.
slope soliton stairs as shown in Fig. 2c)30,80. The underlying physical It is noted that the Eq. (1) is derived from an assumption that the soliton
mechanism behind that lies in the increase in soliton peak power being more locates at the theoretical maximum detuning of Δmax = δ0, max/α = π2γLθPin/
prominent than the decrease in soliton pulse width (caused by the larger (8α3), with α = (θ + αiL)/2, and δ0 is the phase detuning of the nearest
detuning) to maintain soliton self-thermal-locking. In addition, since the resonance with respect to the pump frequency. Equation (1) provides
pulses share almost the same shapes and coherence in single-soliton and straightforward insight into how the conversion efficiency scales with var-
multi-soliton states, the conversion efficiency is proportional to the reduc- ious parameters. Therefore, in addition to the parameters discussed above,
tion of the number of pulses in the further red-detuned regime. factors such as the Kerr coefficient, propagation loss, and FSR of the reso-
Starting from an approximate analytical expression derived from the nator will also impact the conversion efficiency. Notably, Jang et al. further
single soliton solution for the Lugiato–Lefever equation (LLE)93–95, which revealed three distinct scaling regimes of conversion efficiency with the FSR,
serves as the universal and successful model for depicting microcombs contingent upon the coupling state of microresonators81. Specifically, the
dynamics in the Kerr microresonator, the conversion efficiency can be conversion efficiency displays square-root, square, and linear dependence
expressed as80,81 on FSR for near critical coupling, highly under-coupled, and highly over
coupled, respectively, as shown in Fig. 2d–f) It is obvious that improving the
conversion efficiency of single-soliton microcombs is a complex problem
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
involving multiple parameters, and the microcomb need to synthesize the
2πθ θjβ2 j
η¼ FSR; ð1Þ delicate balance between these parameters, making it difficult to define a
θ þ αi L γPin fundamental limitation on the conversion efficiency of single-soliton

Fig. 2 | Conversion efficiency of single-soliton microcombs. a Conversion effi- pump power with an FSR of 220 GHz. Red circles and the blue curves represent the
ciency and intracavity pulse energy versus power coupling coefficient80. experimental results and theoretical predictions, respectively81. h Effects of a mode
b Conversion efficiency versus the input power with different dispersion coefficients. crossing on the maximum effective detuning accessible (blue circles) and corre-
An example of the intracavity single-soliton microcombs corresponding to different sponding conversion efficiency (red triangles). Dashed blue line and dotted red line
slot waveguide is shown in the right panel80. c The dependence of conversion effi- show the maximum effective detuning and conversion efficiency, respectively, in the
ciency on the pump frequency detuning80. d Scaling of the conversion efficiency with absence of a mode crossing81. i Measured efficiency versus soliton pulse width is
the cavity FSR for the pump powers of 260 mW and 350 mW for critical-coupled plotted (blue points) for two devices and compared with theory. A theoretical
regime. Red circles and the blue curves represent the experimental results and comparison with Raman (solid blue lines) and without Raman (dashed blue lines) is
theoretical predictions, respectively81. FSR scaling of the conversion efficiency presented83. CE conversion efficiency, FSR free spectral range, SFS self-frequency
between theory (black curve) and simulation (blue circles) for (e) highly under- shift. Images are adapted with permission from refs. 80,81,83. Copyright
coupled and (f) highly over-coupled regimes81. g Conversion efficiency versus the 2014,2016,2021 Optica Publishing Group.
microcombs. Recently, there are some studies on surpassing the conversion background. Combining the various nonlinear dynamics of soliton, the
efficiency of soliton microcombs by optimizing multiple parameters of extraordinary soliton states of multi-solitons, soliton crystals, dark pulses,
resonators96–98, which revealed, in numerical or experimental ways, that the and laser cavity solitons inherently present a larger temporal overlap with
conversion efficiency can be effectively improved by amplifying multiple the CW background (even background-free for laser cavity solitons) and
favorable parameters (e.g., dispersion coefficient, power coupling coeffi- hence a larger pump-to-comb power conversion efficiency. In particular, it
cient, and FSR) and/or minishing the unfavorable parameters (e.g., loss and is an effective method to improve the conversion efficiency by replacing the
Kerr coefficient). CW laser with a pulse laser that has a focus intensity profile. Additionally,
In addition to the fundamental properties of microresonators, there are feedback architectures can also be utilized to recycle the CW pump power,
some nonlinear effects that are detrimental to the conversion efficiency. further contributing to improve conversion efficiency. Based on the
Notably, Fig. 2h, i presents the effects of mode crossing and self-frequency advantages of high coherence and low noise, soliton microcombs with high
shift (SFS) on conversion efficiency81,83. Comparing the maximum con- conversion efficiency are desired for many practical applications, and has
version efficiency in the absence of a mode crossing (dotted red line in aroused extensive research interest. In this section, we will focus on the
Fig. 2h), the existence of a mode crossing reduces the detuning range of schemes for generating microcombs in Kerr resonators with high conver-
soliton and the maximum conversion efficiency that can be achieved (blue sion efficiency.
circles and red triangles in Fig. 2h). The SFS effect caused by the Raman
nonlinearity would shift the energy of the soliton spectrum from the blue Pulse pumped soliton microcombs
side to the red. Such redistribution of soliton energy increases the minimum Distinct from the conventional narrow-linewidth CW lasers, temporally
pumping power for generating soliton and results in the decrease of energy structured light sources can also be used as a pump for soliton microcombs
conversion efficiency. generation. The principles for CW-driven and pulse-driven schemes are
presented in Fig. 3a, b, respectively50. In a Kerr microresonator, the CW
Schemes for generating high-efficiency Kerr pump field builds up through cavity enhancement and leads to parametric
microcombs gain for other cavity modes. Once the gain exceeds the cavity loss, para-
The low conversion efficiency of soliton microcombs can be attributed to the metric oscillation occurs and Kerr frequency comb generated based on a
small temporal overlap between the CW pump laser and the ultrashort nonlinear optical process of four-wave mixing (FWM). Under suitable
soliton pulse generated in anomalous GVD regime. In contrast, the dark conditions of the balance between Kerr nonlinearity and dispersion along
pulse formed in normal GVD regime can be inversely regarded as a wide with the balance between parametric gain and loss, the stimulated cavity
bright soliton that has a high duty cycle and thus a high conversion effi- modes would be phase-locked, forming soliton pulse within the CW
ciency. The optimization of single-soliton microcombs parameters to background in the time domain. Similarly, the soliton driven by optical
improve conversion efficiency involves increasing dispersion coefficient, pulse formed in a nonlinear optical microresonator undergoes nearly
increasing FSR of resonator, and achieving over-coupling state, is intended identical nonlinear evolution. In the first pulse-driven soliton microcombs
to increase the temporal overlap between soliton pulse and the CW generation experiment, an electro-optic modulation (EOM) picosecond

Fig. 3 | Soliton microcombs driven by optical pulses. a Principle of continuous- (100 kHz) interval of repetition rate. e Optical spectrum of a single soliton driven by
wave-driven soliton frequency combs. A DKS propagates with a roundtrip time a pulse with a duration of 2.1 ps (which corresponds to the yellow spectrum in the
defined by the resonator’s inverse FSR while being supported by the resonant frequency domain). The sech2-envelope fit (red) corresponds to a soliton pulse
enhanced CW background. b Principle of pulse-driven soliton frequency combs. duration of 137 fs (the inset on the left). The inset on the right shows a magnified
Stable solitons form atop the optical pulse with a repetition rate that coincides with view of the spectrum in a 1 nm range. The green spectra show the transmission
the resonator’s FSR. c Resonator transmission trace obtained when the central spectra of the bandpass filters (BPF 1 and 2) used for beatnote detection. Images are
driving mode scans across a resonance for an optimized pulse repetition rate. adapted with permission from ref. 50. Copyright 2017 Springer Nature Limited.
d Contour plot of the transmission showing soliton step existing over a wide
pulse generator served as the pump source to drive a monolithic fiber within the intracavity pump pulse, thus the microcomb’s repetition rate is
Fabry–Perot (FP) resonator with an FSR of ~9.8 GHz50. As the repetition locked to the driving pulse train and synchronized to the FSR of resonator
rate of the picosecond pulse, controlled by the radio frequency (RF) gen- while concomitantly suppressing its time jitter. Particularly, benefiting from
erator, matches the FSR of the resonator, the stable femtosecond soliton the temporally focused structure of the driving pulse, there is a large overlap
would be generated ‘on top’ of the resonantly enhanced driving pulse, as between the binding soliton and the driving pulse, leading to high power
shown in Fig. 3b. As the central driving mode scans across a resonance from conversion efficiency. A 5% soliton conversion efficiency was measured in
the blue-detuning to red-detuning regimes, the resonator transmission the first pulse-driven soliton microcombs experiment.
shows characteristic soliton step features, as shown in Fig. 3c. The generated After the pulse-driven cavity soliton generation in fiber loop and
soliton microcomb is presented in Fig. 3e, with the spectrum corresponding FP resonator50,99, the same scheme has also been transplanted to chip-
to a single pulse of 137 fs duration, exhibiting a sech2-shape envelope. The scale microresonators51,52,54. Since then, pulse-driven microcombs
soliton step appears for a wide spanning interval (100 kHz) of driving pulse have been demonstrated with higher conversion efficiency. Anderson
repetition rate frep (Fig. 3d), suggesting the soliton obtained in a pulsed et al. used a high-Q silicon-nitride (SiN) microresonators with a
driving system is robust for resisting the random fluctuations of value of frep. designed low GVD and a strong third-order dispersion, generating a
In contrast to CW-driven systems, the pulse laser offers a significantly soliton microcombs with an electronically detectable repetition rate
higher peak power, alleviating constraints on the soliton microcombs of 28 GHz, and measured a conversion efficiency of 8%100. For the
generated in a high-Q microresonator with a small FSR and decreases the same device, a broadband soliton microcombs close to two-thirds of
average driving laser power for generating solitons. Besides, the soliton can an octave formed with the aid of the strong dispersive wave emission,
be robustly “trapped” at a specific position (not always sit atop the peak) demonstrated an efficiency of 2.8% under a pulse driving with an

average energy of 6.4 pJ100. The bandwidth of such broadband soliton Multi-soliton microcombs
microcomb is comparable to that of a supercontinuum, as noted by Aforementioned, the microcombs in multi-soliton state have a larger energy
the authors. Li et al. analytically and experimentally investigated the that is scaled up proportionally with the number of solitons, which should be
influence of pulse-driven system parameters on the conversion effi- a strong candidate for improving the conversion efficiency considering its
ciency of soliton microcombs, revealing unique soliton dynamics prevalence accompanying almost all single-soliton microcomb
compared to CW driving and its limitations52. The experimental production30,31,35,42. However, due to the inherently stochastic intracavity
setup used is shown in Fig. 4a, with an EO comb (as shown in inset of dynamics, the number of solitons generated in resonators is probabilistic in
Fig. 4b) utilized to generate pump pulses. The pulses had repetition the usual approach in which detuning is swept to a predetermined value
rates synchronized to the FSR of the silica (SiO2) microdisk reso- with input held constant. Figures 5a, b presents an example illustrating the
nator. Soliton generation was triggered when the center frequency of overlapped power traces of one CW pump laser swept over a micro-
the pump pulse swept across the microcavity resonance from blue to resonator’s resonance for 200 times using forward frequency-tuning
red detuning regime. Examples of the soliton microcombs for the method from blue to red detuning regime, which clearly shows the ran-
resonators with external Q factors (Qex) of 14 million and 37 million domness of soliton number N. To achieve deterministic generation of
are illustrated in Fig. 4b, in which a higher soliton output for the single-soliton microcombs, a forward and backward frequency-tuning
lower Qex is consistent with the trend of power coupling coefficient technique was introduced31. Briefly, this technique involves initially apply-
imposed on conversion efficiency. Figure 4c presents the measured ing forward frequency tuning to stimulate multi-soliton state, and then the
soliton conversion efficiency versus Qex for different durations pump laser is swept backward adiabatically with a low scanning speed.
of pulses, with the pulse duration adjusted by controlling the number During the operation of the latter, the soliton state switched successively by
of EO comb lines. The soliton efficiency increases as the duration of reducing the number of solitons one by one, as shown in the conceptual
pumping pulse decreases. Theoretically, this trend is valid until the diagram in Fig. 5c. The experimental cavity dynamics of the forward and
pump pulse width is smaller than the width of the formed soliton backward frequency-tuning method are shown in Fig. 5d, in which a regular
pulse. Remarkably, single-soliton operation with a steady-state con- staircase pattern is formed with the successive extinction of intracavity
version efficiency up to 34% is attained using 2 ps pump pulses, while solitons. Incidentally, the nearly equal stair heights confirm the consistency
a transient efficiency up to 54% is measured using 1 ps pump pulses between the pulse energies of multiple solitons. Figure 5e~g present the
under frequency-scanning conditions. These record high efficiencies measured soliton microcombs in soliton states with N = 1,2,3, respectively,
demonstrate the conversion efficiency of soliton microcombs can be through the forward and backward tuning method. Although this method
significantly boosted by optimizing the pulse-driven system. aims to deterministically obtain single soliton state, it involves continuously
Besides the pulse-driven system working in anomalous dispersion, traversing the soliton state starting from the maximum number of solitons.
recently, the pulse driven methods were demonstrated for generating dark Such characteristic makes it a technique for generating multi-soliton states
pulses in normal-dispersion resonators. The first normal-dispersion soliton containing a specific number of solitons. However, for a given dispersion
microcombs driven by pulse was formed in a weakly normal SiN micro- coefficient, the number of solitons that can be generated has a maximum
resonator in the near-zero-dispersion regime101, in which the complex value, which is randomly determined during the forward tuning process
interplay between switching waves (SWs) and dispersive solitons was fully (Fig. 5b). Therefore, it is not a robust approach to significantly improve the
investigated and achieved a near-octave broadband microcomb. At the conversion efficiency based on the multi-soliton states with high N values.
same time, the soliton dynamics in a strong normal-dispersion resonator Benefitting from the investigation on the self-injection locking effect,
was studied by ref. 102. Both studies demonstrated that pulsed driving reproducible multi-soliton microcombs with high conversion efficiency
enables the spontaneous generation of isolated SWs, without requiring were demonstrated on a hybrid integrated platform84. The self-injection
perturbations to the resonator’s dispersion to induce MI. Following these locking effect is a profound phenomenon in oscillatory circuits, extensively
works, the dynamics of normal-dispersion combs in fiber loop and FP studied for decades in radio-physics, microwave electronics, and photonic
resonators were studied53,103–105, in which a conversion efficiency of 19% was integrated circuits to improve the spectral purity of the devices55,59,112–114.
measured in a FP resonator (with FSR ~ 10.214 GHz) driven by a pulse with Recently, this effect has been used in nonlinear photonics to facilitate the
a duration of 1.9 ps104, and a following conversion efficiency of 23.4% was integration of microcombs. The principle of self-injection locking enabling
achieved by the same research group in a FP resonator with an FSR of the generation of soliton microcombs in a SiN microresonator is presented
1.8393 GHz105. in Fig. 6a. In such setup, a single frequency laser launched by a free-running
Researches have been done to explore combination of pulsed driving distributed feedback (DFB) diode is coupled into the resonator, and a
scheme with other effects. Simply, taking advantage of the bonding effect portion of the laser radiation is resonantly backscattered (e.g., due to Ray-
between pump pulses and solitons (or soliton self-synchronization effect), leigh scattering here, or direct reflection in FP cavities) to the laser cavity.
the microcombs with tunable comb line spacing were achieved by applying a This process induces self-injection locking, effectively locking the laser
pulsed pump rate that is the rational harmonic of the resonator FSR101,106. emission frequency to the cavity mode of similar frequency115. The locked
Physically, the dual-wavelength pumping schemes consisting of two laser laser exhibits a dramatically reduced linewidth and noise, and further
beams very close in frequency are the roughest pulsed pumping sources85, driving the nonlinear resonator to generate soliton microcombs. Since the
which were used to stimulate Brillouin lasers in fiber loops and driven back-reflection time is shorter than the thermal relaxation time, the laser
internally to spontaneously generated soliton microcombs with low noise frequency tracks the thermally shifted cavity resonance, effectively sup-
and high stability107,108. Furthermore, the combination of self-injection pressing thermal instability and alleviating the requirement for delicate
locking and pulsed driving method enables the realization of fully integrated frequency manipulation to trigger solitons, which further enables a unique
soliton microcomb sources54, which were implemented to demonstrate a state of permitting soliton generation called “turnkey” operation through
stable direct atomic spectroscopy with absolute optical-frequency fluctua- simply turning on the pump laser free from any additional auxiliary
tions at the kilohertz level over a few seconds and <1 MHz day-to-day systems57. The employed self-injection locking scheme enabled microcomb
accuracy10. In addition, the pulsed driving scheme supports researches on generation using high-performance semiconductor laser diodes instead of
other soliton physics, such as soliton tweezing109, spontaneous symmetry bulky narrow-linewidth lasers, thereby paving the way for the development
breaking110, and Faraday instability111. In summary, a superior soliton of fully integrated chip-scale single microcomb sources. Using this method,
microcomb with greater performances (e.g., a higher conversion efficiency, a Dmitriev et al. demonstrated a fully integrated, power-efficient dual-
wider spectral bandwidth, a lower power consumption, and so on) is microcomb source operating in multi-soliton states84. The merit of self-
expectable in an optimized pulsed driving system combining other favorable injection locking against thermal frequency drift broadens the soliton range
effects. (Fig. 6b) and enables turnkey operation. Remarkably, two types of

Fig. 4 | Pulse-driven soliton microcombs with high conversion efficiency. Qex fits of the measured efficiencies. The blue dashed line is the soliton efficiency
a Experimental setup. b Optical spectra of pulse-driven solitons generated in under the CW pumping case. The red dashed line is the theoretical threshold Qex for
microdisks with Qex = 14 million (blue) and 37 million (yellow). The soliton output soliton formation. WDM wavelength division multiplexer, PS pulse shaper, PM
power is lower for higher Qex at the same pump power. Inset shows the electro- power meter, BOC balanced optical cross-correlator. Images are adapted with
optical (EO) comb used to generate pump pulses. c Measured soliton conversion permission from ref. 52. Copyright 2022 Optica Publishing Group.
efficiency versus Qex for different durations of pulses. The solid curves are inverse
Fig. 5 | Forward and backward frequency-tuning methods. a Scheme of the for- single-soliton (SS) state. d Experimental power trace in forward tuning (yellow
ward tuning method for the soliton generation. The pump laser is tuned over the curve) and the followed backward tuning (white curve) for soliton switch (from
resonance from short to long wavelengths (forward tuning). Hatched region N = 7 to N = 0 successively) and deterministic single soliton generation.
represents the range for multi-soliton (MS) states. b 200 overlaid experimental e–g Measured soliton microcombs in soliton states with N = 1,2,3, generated in a
power traces of the output comb light in the pump forward tuning over the reso- 100 GHz SiN microresonators during the backward tuning. The red solid curve
nance, reveals the formation of a predominant multiple-soliton state with N = 6. shows the sech2 fitting of the soliton spectrum envelope. Insets show the relative
c Scheme of the backward tuning method, where the forward tuning is first applied, positions of the soliton inside the resonator. Images are adapted with permission
and stopped in a multiple-soliton state, then the pump is tuned backward to access to from ref. 31. Copyright 2017 Springer Nature Limited.

Fig. 6 | Multi-soliton microcombs generation based on self-injection locking highlights the soliton existence84. c, d Measured optical spectra (blue lines) of multi-
effect. a Principle of self-injection locking. The distributed feedback (DFB) laser self- soliton states for repetition rates of ~150 GHz (c) and ~1 THz (d). Green lines and
injection locks to a high-Q resonator via Rayleigh backscattering. Simultaneously, it purple lines represent the theoretical envelopes for multi-soliton state and single-
pumps the nonlinear resonator to generate a soliton microcomb, wherein the soliton state, respectively. Insets show the RF spectra of the microcombs’ intensity
nonlinear effects such as self-phase modulation (SPM) and cross-phase modulation between 0 and 20 GHz84. Images are adapted with permission from refs. 84,115.
(XPM) on self-injection locking are considered115. b Measured transmission trace for Copyright 2022 American Physical Society. Copyright 2021 Springer Nature
35 mW pump power with self-injection locking effect. The green background Limited.
microcombs in eight-soliton (FSR ~ 150 GHz) and three-soliton states multi-soliton state, the power of microcombs in soliton crystals states lin-
(FSR ~ 1 THz) with conversion efficiencies of up to 25 and 40%, respec- early increased with the soliton number. A soliton crystal containing a
tively, were generated, as shown in Fig. 6c, d. It presents a record conversion sufficient number of packed solitons and filling the entire angular domain of
efficiency for multi-soliton microcombs with broad spectra. Subsequently, the resonator exhibits an intracavity power similar to the MI state, it is
the microcombs were further down-converted to the radio-frequency presented by a typical soliton crystals step appearing at the peak of the
domain for applications in dual-microcomb spectroscopy. transmission power trace following chaotic fluctuation stage (inset of
Despite the realization of multi-soliton microcombs with high con- Fig. 7d). This property not only indicates a high power conversion efficiency
version efficiency enabled through self-injection locking, it is regrettable that from the pump to microcombs, but enables the soliton crystals formed
the multi-soliton microcombs generally exhibit a structured spectrum stably through adiabatic pump-laser scans, without the need for the complex
determined by the relative positions of solitons in the microresonators, techniques used in other demonstrations of Kerr solitons to avoid dissipa-
which are mostly random for the forward and backward tuning method and tion of the solitons due to thermal changes suffering from sudden drop in
are ambiguous for self-injection locking90,116,117. Overall, the challenge of intracavity power.
accurately reproducing the same state and the significant intensity varia- Evolving from the MI state, soliton crystals exhibit various states
tions in the optical spectrum hinder the application of multi-soliton because of different soliton arrangements, resulting in many unique “palm-
microcombs in fields that require smooth spectrum. This limitation also like” spectra in the frequency domain, such as the perfect, Schottky defects,
makes it less attractive in nonlinear physics research. Frenkel defects, disorder, superstructure, and irregular states68,118. Among
these soliton-crystal states, the perfect soliton crystal (PSC) is their simplest
Soliton crystals microcombs and most ideal representative, defined as all solitons evenly distributed
Among the various soliton phenomena in nonlinear resonator, soliton within the resonators, as shown in Fig. 7a. In contrast to other soliton
crystals are the most promising soliton-microcomb states with high con- crystals with defects, the behavior of PSCs is unperturbed by missing or
version efficiency to be applied in practical applications. Soliton crystals shifted soliton pulses, such a high regularity leading to a pure microcomb
were so-named due to their crystal-like patterns of ensembled copropa- consisting of a few lines with a spacing of N (or X in Fig. 7a, which is the
gating solitons within Kerr resonators, which were self-organized and soliton number of PSCs) times of FSR. Accordingly, the multiplicity of
arranged with a regular sequence in distribution. Physically, the soliton soliton repetition rate superimposed on the increase in the number of
crystals are a special class of multi-soliton states, and their generation is solitons boosts the power of each comb line by N2 (or X2) times in com-
found to be related to the modulated background wave68,70. Typically, this parison to the single-soliton state70,85, as shown in Fig. 7c, d. The enhanced
modulated wave is formed due to the presence of avoided mode crossings comb lines offer promise for a number of applications requiring high-power
(AMXs), which occur as localized alterations of the microresonator dis- comb lines, ranging from optical coherent communications to astrophysical
persion resulting from interference between the pump mode and other spectrometer calibration. Furthermore, PSCs could be regarded as a single-
transverse modes (as shown in Fig. 7b)70. The modulated background serves soliton state with a multiple FSR reaching terahertz in a common resonator
as an optical lattice trap to “catch” the solitons at regular positions, leading to circumvents the bending losses and dispersion control for extremely small
the ordering of DKS pulses in a crystal-like structure. Consistent with the microresonators.

Fig. 7 | PSCs in Kerr microresonators. a Principle of the PSC consisting of X pulses PSC85. d Optical spectra of PSC state containing 15 solitons (blue lines) and single-
formed in the CW-driven Kerr microresonator70. b Measured integrated dispersion soliton state (red lines) in a SiN microresonator device under the same conditions of
of a SiN microresonator (blue circles) and the fitting curves for the fundamental the pump power and effective detuning. The inset shows five repeated scan trans-
transverse electric (TE; red dashed curve) and transverse magnetic (TM; blue dased mission traces, the PSC states with a soliton number of 15 are highlighted by the
curves) mode families. The cross points between such two mode families would green background70. Images are adapted with permission from refs. 70,85. Copyright
occur avoided mode crossings (AMXs)70. c The soliton center line power extracted 2019, 2021 Springer Nature Limited.
from experimental spectral envelopes versus the square of soliton number N2 in
After demonstrating the generation of PSCs, a significant the single-soliton state. In a certain sense, this technique could be
amount of effort has been made to obtain deterministic PSC states regarded as an extremely simple pulsed pump containing two comb
and controllable switching between different PSC states. In general, lines with a repetition rate is an integral harmonic of cavity FSR.
excitation of a PSC state is often random, since the regular dis- Along with the research on accessing and switching PSCs, the high
tribution of solitons is easily interfered by the thermo-optic non- conversion efficiency of soliton crystals has been demonstrated in several
linearity. Hence, accessing PSCs requires a delicate tuning process in investigations. In one experiment by Corcoran et al., a defective soliton
the parameter space of pump power and detuning. Research on the crystal with an internal conversion efficiency of 42% was demonstrated and
dynamic of PSCs has demonstrated the generation of PSCs is typi- used as a single integrated chip source in wavelength-division multiplexed
cally achieved at relatively low pump powers in comparison with the (WDM) system2. By leveraging the high stability and coherence of soliton
standard procedures of multi-soliton excitation70. Below the power crystals, an ultrahigh bandwidth optical transmission with 44.2 Tbps using
threshold, the microresonators featured with AMXs exhibit a long 64 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) was demonstrated. Further-
PSCs step, indicating the systems for PSCs are robust and repro- more, another defective soliton crystal was demonstrated experimentally
ducible (as shown in inset of Fig. 7d). By varying the pump reso- and numerically in a SiN microresonator for the first time, which has a flat
nances to adjust the modulated CW background aided by AMXs, top and a conversion efficiency ~10%120. A more recent demonstration by
PSCs with different soliton numbers were achieved116, as presented in Weng et al. realized the tunable switching soliton states of single-soliton,
Fig. 8a, b. The controllable switch between different PSC states offers 2-PSC, and 3-PSC with a conversion efficiency of 7.7%, 11.4%, and 13.5%,
a convenient approach for tuning the repetition rate of soliton respectively, in a dispersion-engineered dual-mode microresonator90.
microcombs in a monolithic device. Furthermore, this technique was Benefitting from the enhanced comb lines of PSCs, both PSCs exhibited
promoted by combining photorefractive effect49, thermo-optic broadband spectra exceeding an octave-spanning range from 127 THz to
effect118, and auxiliary-laser-assistance119. However, suffering from 270 THz. Following this demonstration, the same research group showed
the complex soliton dynamics and the weak AMX-induced mod- the versatility of octave-spanning PSCs with higher conversion efficiency in
ulation on CW background, the soliton numbers of PSCs do not a SiN microresonator. By optimizing the power coupling coefficient, a series
exactly align with the relative resonance shifts between pumping of different PSCs driven by different pump resonances achieved conversion
modes and AMXs, as shown in Fig. 8b. This discrepancy hinders the efficiencies above 50%121. In addition to the results mentioned above, there
flexible switching of the PSC states. In order to address this issue, a are several investigations on microcombs with high conversion efficiency in
pumping scheme consisting of two CW lasers was proposed to soliton crystal states have been realized by other schemes. We will discuss
manipulate PSC states directly85. The principle of synthesized PSCs these specifically in following sections.
generated in a microresonator driven by dichromatic pumping is
presented in Fig. 8c, d, where a strong periodic modulation is formed Dark soliton microcombs
due to the beating of two pump lasers, offering an artificial back- In contrast to the DKS requires the optical cavity to display anomalous
ground potential field to evenly trap solitons in distribution. By dispersion at the pump wavelength, dark soliton is a type of localized sta-
controlling the beating of dichromatic pumping, the reconfigurable tionary structure found in cavities operating in normal dispersion regime,
PSCs with soliton numbers from 1 to 32 were synthesized in a which is consistent with the inherent material dispersion of most photonics
monolithic silica glass microresonator, as shown in Fig. 8d. Such a platforms, thereby reducing the requirements on the geometry of resonators
highly ordered temporal distribution could coherently enhance the for generating microcombs122. Accordingly, the phase-matching of the MI
PSC-comb lines power up to 3 orders of magnitude compared with process is not satisfied for normal-dispersion microresonators, which is

Fig. 8 | Deterministic accessing PSC states through AMX and controllable deterministic PSC by using dichromatic pumping. The beating of the dual-
dichromatic pumping. a Measured integrated dispersion of the fundamental TE wavelength lights (blue and green lines) constructs a traveling periodic modulated
mode family in a SiN microresonator (top) and zoom-in of region between 1540 nm background and trapped soliton to form PSC85. d Synthesized PSC in the dichro-
and 1580 nm (bottom). Blue circles show the measured integrated dispersion and the matic pumped system with a sech2 envelope in the spectrum. The vibration of soliton
red line shows its fitting curve. The AMX is marked around the wavelength of will induce modulated sidebands around the main comb lines (inset)85. e Measured
1565 nm116. b Optical spectra (blue lines: experiment; red lines: sech2 fitting) of optical spectra for 1–32 synthesized SC with smooth sech2 envelopes (red dashed
single-soliton state and three deterministic PSC states (N = 2, 3, 4) generated at the lines)85. Images are adapted with permission from refs. 85,116. Copyright 2020
resonances of 1556.0, 1554.3, and 1551.1 nm, respectively. The insets illustrate Springer Nature Limited.
soliton distribution inside the microresonator116. c Conceptual schematic for
necessary to trigger the state of mode-locked microcombs88. To avoid transform limitation, which can be interpreted as two stably interlocked
excitation of dark pulses under a large red-detuning in the thermally SWs, connecting the upper and lower homogeneous steady-state solutions
unstable regime, several excitation methods have been proposed to enable of the bistable cavity response76. These localized waveforms exhibit wide
the formation of dark solitons in the normal dispersion regime, such as pulse durations, the large duty cycle analogous to square waves indicates
AMX65,75, amplitude-modulated optical pumping123,124, pulsed high conversion efficiency, as proven in various following researches. The
pumping53,101–105, double-cavity coupled photonic dimers40,86, and photonic key benefits of dark soliton in the normal GVD regime, including ease
crystal microcavity (PhCR)92,125. Among these methods, AMX is the most access, high stability, high conversion efficiency, and slower power falloffs in
prevalent approach for generating a normal-GVD comb. In contrast to the spectrum, make it a more ideal light source for applications.
detrimental effect on soliton generation in the anomalous GVD regime81, Dark pulse shares many similar properties with its counterpart in
the mode coupling between different mode families in normal-dispersion the anomalous GVD regime in response to parameters of Kerr resona-
microresonators causes a shifting of the coupled resonances and locally tors. For example, a small dispersion coefficient and large nonlinear
alters the dispersion to allow for MI. In the representative experiment with coefficient result in a broad spectral bandwidth and low conversion
dark solitons, AMX was employed to initialize the MI, and then realized efficiency; the increase of power coupling coefficient accompanies an
dark solitons in a SiN microresonator via a thermal-tuning method. The increase in conversion efficiency at the expense of a decrease in Q factor;
measured integrated dispersion disturbed by AMX is presented in Fig. 9a39. a large FSR of cavity would enhance the intensity of comb line and boost
The pump frequency is gradually tuned from the blue side of a resonance, the conversion efficiency. In contrast, the evolutionary dynamics of dark
the power transmission trace is depicted in Fig. 9b. It is notable that the soliton with respect to detuning are unique. Using the setup as shown in
whole tuning range is almost exclusively located in the effectively blue- Fig. 10a, Nazemosadat et al. revealed the switching dynamics of dark-
detuned regime, that implies the intracavity pump field stays on the upper pulse in a Kerr microresonator by forward and backward tuning
branch of the bistability curve, in which MI is weak or even disappeared. The method126. Figure 10b presents a measured a transmission trace under a
optical spectra and intensity noise at different detuning stages are presented fixed pump power. As the pump laser is swept forward into resonance,
in Fig. 9c, d, where the low-noise mode-locking microcombs with flat and the comb power increases in a gradual manner while displaying con-
modulated envelopes were observed in the power drop step regime, indi- tinuous steps in consistent with Fig. 9b. After accessing the maximum
cating the existence of a state transition similar to the soliton step in detuning of dark pulse in the forward tuning, the comb power drops
anomalous GVD regime. Benefitting from the weak MI and the blue- along the same trace in the reverse direction by tuning the pump
detuned pump, the generation of dark solitons follows a deterministic backward. Furthermore, the comb power continually drops in a
pathway (Fig. 9b) and exhibits a robust character similar to PSC. The cor- smoothed, steplike pattern in further backward tuning until the pump
responding pulse profile of the normal-GVD comb is presented in Fig. 9e, it non-resonant completely. The evolution of comb power in the forward
is a complex structure depicted as low-intensity oscillations embedded in a and backward pump tuning shows hysteresis behavior, similar to what
high-intensity background. Different from the isolated ultrashort pulses has been observed for bright solitons in anomalous-dispersion resona-
with time-bandwidth-product limited durations in the anomalous disper- tors. The optical spectra and their corresponding simulated intracavity
sion region, dark solitons are the chirped pulses far from the Fourier- pulse profiles at different detuning stages, marked in Fig. 10b, are shown

Fig. 9 | Dark pulses in a normal-dispersion

microresonator. a Measured integrated dispersion
with respect to the resonance around 1537.4 nm.
Red circles, cold cavity; blue crosses, pumped cavity
with pump power of ~1 W. b Power transmission
traces when pump swept across a resonance. 20
measured traces are overlapped with different colors
to show reproducibility. c, d Optical spectra and
radio-frequency spectra (blue lines, red lines indi-
cate the noise floor) for each stage marked in (b).
e Measured (top) and simulated (bottom) cross-
correlation for the comb shown in (c), III. Images are
adapted with permission from ref. 39. Copyright
2015 Springer Nature Limited.
Fig. 10 | Deterministic switching of dark pulses.

a Setup for normal-comb generation and measure-
ment. b Measured comb power when the pump
scans forward (blue line) then backward (yellow
line). c Optical spectra at different pump detuning
marked in (b). The comb envelope of each state is
simulated and shown in red lines, the corresponding
simulated temporal profiles are presented in the
bottom panels. The arrows point the number of low
intensity oscillations. For state F, the phase of the
pulse is shown in dashed blue line. OSC Oscillo-
scope, ATT Attenuator, VNA Vector network ana-
lyzer. Images are adapted with permission from
ref. 126. Copyright 2021 American Physical Society.
in Fig. 10c. The optical spectra depicted similar normal-GVD combs flat-top pulsed structure called platicon is formed and deemed as a bright
except for the variation of bandwidth in parallel with comb power pulse evolving from a dark pulse in normal dispersion regime, which is a
evolution. Strikingly, the simulated waveforms revealed the switching of higher-order dark pulse can be accessed at the stable Maxwell point in
low intensity oscillation at the center of the dark-pulse structure, as the bifurcation analysis76,127. Intuitively, a dark pulse can be regarded as the
arrows pointed in Fig. 10c. The number of low-intensity oscillations inverse bright multi-solitons with a coherently assembled structure
increases as the comb power increases in forward pump tuning, while embedded in a high-intensity constant background, where the low-
vanishing one by one in the reverse direction. In bifurcation analysis, intensity ripples correspond to the pulse peaks of assembled solitons.
these temporal structures arise from the different snaking branch Therefore, dark pulses present modulated spectral envelopes and high
solutions of SWs; the orders of SWs and their stable regimes decrease conversion efficiencies similar to multi-soliton, and a reproductive
with increasing detuning, thus called the collapsed snake structure76. pathway free from the disordered distribution of multiple solitons in
When the ratio of low-intensity structure is larger than high intensity, a microresonators. In addition, the maximum comb power is consistent

Fig. 11 | Dark pulses with high conversion efficiency generated on different waveguide reflector (left), SEM image of the fabricated Ta2O5 PhCR and waveguide
platforms. a Schematic of platicon generation using a DFB laser self-injection- reflector (middle), and the magnified views of the coupling waveguide reflector
locked to a photonic chip-based, high-Q SiN microresonator128. b Illustration of dark section (right)92. e SEM images of sidewall of a chalcogenide glass (GeSbS) waveguide
pulse generation in the tantala (Ta2O5) PhCR (left), and the scanning-electron- (left), GeSbS microresonator (middle), and the cross-section with a silica cladding
microscopy (SEM) image showing a section of the PhCR (right)125. c Microscope waveguide (right), respectively. ARP is a photoresist named ARP-6200131.
photograph of a SiN microresonator with inner and outer angular gratings (left), and f Microscope photograph of one AlGaAsOI microresonator (left), and the SEM
the measured transmission spectrum around the pump wavelength 1542 nm. The image of the cross section of the microresonator. The AlGaAs core is highlighted in
arrows indicate two mode splittings (MS1 and MS2, red) occurring around the pump red, and silica forms the substrate and cladding (right)132. Images are adapted with
(orange arrow; right). Insets show the SEM image of the coupling section of the permission from refs. 92,125,128,130–132. Copyright 2022, 2023 Springer Nature
microresonator and the magnified views of the arrowed modes130. d Schematic of the Limited. Copyright 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH. Copyright 2023 SPIE and under
dark pulses generation with high conversion efficiency in a PhCR with a coupling Creative Commons Attribution from arXiv.
with the duration of dark pulse or the number of low-intensity ripples, spanning 180 ~ 210 THz with a conversion efficiency of 21%. Furthermore,
which is determined by the Maxwell point related to the parameters of Li et al. proposed a PhCR with a modulated structure on both the inner and
the system, and is similar to the limitation of the maximum soliton outer edges of the microresonator (Fig. 11c) to generate stable, power-
numbers confined in a resonator. efficient normal-GVD microcombs with high spectral symmetry130. The
Encouraged by the various advantages of dark solitons, a number of structure of such PhCR results in two symmetrically positioned local dis-
platforms for generating dark soliton microcombs with high conversion persion alterations on either side of the pump mode (Fig. 11c), eliminating
efficiency have been studied. For instance, Lihachev et al. used laser self- the odd components of dispersion responsible for the asymmetry of dark-
injection locking to demonstrate a fully integrated platicon microcomb soliton microcombs. Moreover, by adjusting the interval between the
operating at a microwave K-band repetition rate128. By using a high-Q SiN positions of the dispersion alterations and the pump mode, deterministic
microresonator self-injection-locked by a DFB laser (Fig. 11a), multi- perfect platicon crystals were achieved. In contrast to the PSCs in anomalous
platicon states with low phase noise were excited directly without sophis- GVD regime, the conversion efficiency of microcombs increases slightly
ticated active control. The formation dynamics and properties of platicons rather than linearly with the number of platicons due to the duration of the
were investigated, in which a high conversion efficiency of 40% was dark pulses further compressed within limited angular space. Here, a
demonstrated. In addition, the same configuration was adapted to normal-GVD microcomb in a single-platicon case with a conversion effi-
demonstrate hertz-linewidth semiconductor lasers using CMOS-ready ciency of 27.6% was demonstrated. Recently, by using a pump-recycling
ultra-high-Q microresonators, where a self-injection-locked platicon photonic crystal reflector in the coupling waveguide (Fig. 11d), a measured
microcomb with low phase noise and narrow linewidth is obtained59. 65% conversion efficiency and 97% pump consumption of a 40 mW input
Another approach to excite dark pulse in normal dispersion regime is by pump laser was demonstrated in an over-coupled PhCR with normal
using PhCR. A PhCR is a microresonator with periodic modulation to create dispersion88. Besides advances on excitation schemes of dark-soliton
frequency-domain point defects129, which can locally modify the dispersion microcombs, optical materials with favorable properties provide another
akin to AMXs to enable MI. By employing an edge-less tantala PhCR (as route to support microcombs with high conversion efficiency. Xia et al.
shown in Fig. 11b), Yu et al. showed the dark-to-bright continuum via demonstrated both a bright soliton-based microcomb with a bandwidth of
controlling the strength of defect along with the pump-cavity detuning125. 240 nm and a dark-soliton microcomb with a conversion efficiency of 21.8%
They demonstrated flexible control over the bandwidth and conversion in a single GeSbS microresonator in two fundamental polarized mode
efficiency of microcomb, achieving a 200-GHz normal-GVD microcombs families (Fig. 11e)131. Alternatively, by using microresonators on an AlGaAs

Fig. 12 | Laser cavity solitons generation in

microresonator nested into a gain fiber cavity.
a Principle of operation of microcomb laser cavity-
soliton formation. A short pulse (green) propagates
in the microcavity (blue) sustained by a longer pulse
(red) and a weak higher-order ‘super-mode pulse’
(purple) in the gain fiber loop (yellow).
b Experimental setup for laser cavity solitons gen-
eration. c Distribution of cold-cavity resonances.
Microresonator resonances are represented in
green, and the amplifying-fiber-loop resonances are
in black, with leading and first-order supermodes
highlighted in red and purple, respectively. The
normalized frequency offset between the central
frequency of the leading supermode and the
microcavity resonance is Δ; The variable δ is the
normalized FSR detuning. d Typical optical spec-
trum of laser cavity soliton, which contains two
equidistant solitons in one round-trip. Insets: the
measured autocorrelation traces (blue line in left
inset) and simulated intensity profiles (dotted red
dashed line in left inset and red solid line right inset).
OC optical collimator, PBS polarizing beam splitter.
Images are adapted with permission from ref. 72.
Copyright 2019 Springer Nature Limited.
on-insulator platform (Fig. 11f), Shu et al. generated a dark-soliton background wave to maintain its existence (i.e., background-free), which
microcomb with an unprecedentedly wide tuning range of over one free releases most pump energy to be converted into comb modes. Compared to
spectral range. The conversion efficiency reached ~15%132. Combining the the conversion efficiency of a few percentage points for conventional bright
same configuration with foundry-based silicon photonics, dark-soliton soliton, here the laser cavity soliton achieved a conversion efficiency of 75%,
microcombs were demonstrated to driven system-level data links. Such with a theoretical maximum reached to 96%. Such high conversion effi-
synergy of microcombs and other integrated components would facilitate ciency, combined with the regular pulsed nature, motivates further pursuit
the next generation of integrated photonics133. of bright solitons. Very recently, Nie et al. deeply studied the laser cavity
soliton generation and interaction dynamics in a FP-microresonator-
Laser cavity soliton microcombs filtered fiber laser, and demonstrated a self-starting soliton microcomb with
Recently, a novel bright dispersive soliton named laser cavity soliton was a high conversion efficiency of 90.7%135. Here the FSR of the employed FP-
demonstrated in a microresonator nested into a pump-generating active microresonator is ~10 GHz, the corresponding synchronous repetition rate
ring cavity. The principle of laser cavity soliton is presented in Fig. 12a, of soliton is favorable for application in X-band. It is incomparable to
which contains a Kerr microresonator and a longer amplifying fiber loop. conventional bright soliton limited by the corresponding large volume and
The exact experimental setup is shown in Fig. 12b72. It is observed that the low conversion efficiency. Besides the excellent conversion efficiency, it has
Kerr microcavity is embedded within a fiber loop assembled to resemble a been discovered that the microresonator-filtered fiber laser system exhibits a
mode-locked laser without a saturable absorber. The pulse propagating in property of slow nonlinearity arising from the EDFA and the thermal
the fiber loop is boosted and spectrally limited by the erbium-ytterbium co- response of the Kerr microresonator, which can transform the desired
doped fiber amplifier (EYDFA). By adjusting the length of the delay line, the soliton state to be the dominant attractor of the system73,74,136,137. Therefore,
resonance distribution of such two cavities is finely tuned to ensure only a the self-emergence (i.e., self-starting) of specific soliton states and flexible
single fiber cavity mode in each microresonator mode to prevent supermode switching between different states by tailoring the global parameters of the
instability (Fig. 12c). The pulse sustained in microresonator, and spectrally system were enabled. Moreover, the generated soliton states exhibited high
broadened by the Kerr nonlinearity over the laser-gain bandwidth. A tun- stability and self-healing capability, which are desired merits for micro-
able bandpass filter (BPF) is employed in the fiber loop to suppress excessive combs applied in practice.
nonlinear phase shift and maintain the locked coherence of comb lines Replacing the gain fiber loop in the microresonator-filtered fiber laser
enabled by the FWM effect. The principle of such laser cavity soliton is system by a passive waveguide, a novel hybrid Mach-Zehnder micro-ring
similar to the filter-driven FWM laser, where a resonator is used as a filter as resonator architecture was proposed to support soliton microcomb with
well as a nonlinear gain element in an erbium doped-fiber cavity134. The high conversion efficiency. The principle of the proposed micro-ring
measured optical spectrum of laser cavity soliton is presented in Fig. 12d, resonator is presented in Fig. 13a, consisting of a Kerr microresonator for
presenting a broadband comb with a unique envelope due to the inter- motivating DKSs, embedded in a secondary cavity that acted as a feedback
ference between the fields in the two cavities. The pulse profiles both in section87. The optical path length of the secondary cavity was designed to be
experimental and theoretical revealed it is the bright-soliton combs (insets in twice that of the microresonator, and can be delicately tailored and tuned (by
Fig. 12d). Remarkably, the laser cavity soliton does not require the pump microheater in the experiment as shown in Fig. 13b) to set a phase difference

Fig. 13 | Efficient soliton-crystal microcomb generation in a microresonator with c Measured integrated dispersion of resonator labeled as A in (b). d Comb power
interferometric back-coupling. a Schematic of the ring resonator with an inter- versus the pump detuning, which presents various soliton crystal states. The dif-
ferometric back-coupling architecture, where the ring is nested in a cavity twice its ferent colors represent consecutive pump scanning through the resonance.
length. The pump-resonance detuning, δ1, is in general nonzero (inset). Therefore, at e, f Optical spectra of microcombs in PSC and defective soliton crystal states,
the coupling points 1 and 2, there is a fraction of the field that is in- or out-coupled, respectively. The pump modes are highlighted by red arrows, and the depletion
while the remaining fraction is reflected. The interference of fields is adjusted by values of pump modes are presented in red. TBP tunable bandpass filter. Images are
tuning (with a microheater) the length of the feedback section by Δ. b Experimental adapted with permission from ref. 87. Copyright 2022 Springer Nature Limited.
setup and picture of a chip containing two ring resonators with feedback (A and B).
of π between the pump fields out-coupled from the microresonator and molecule. The transverse modes of the resonators evanescently couple with
through-passed from the feedback section at node 2. The opposite phases each other, leading to AMXs (Fig. 14b) and localized anomalous dispersion
between the fields cause a sharp pump depletion, which indicates an extreme to initiate the formation of normal-GVD microcombs. In comparison with
conversion efficiency into the comb lines. In theory, the interference of the AMXs in an individual cavity, the photonic dimer is immune to the ran-
fields permits an unprecedented pump depletion above 80% and a high domness of the AMXs’ locations and coupling strengths40. By controlling the
conversion efficiency only limited by the necessarily remaining pump gap between resonators, the coupling coefficient between modes can be
background field to sustain DKS operation in the resonators. Driving the easily controlled. Furthermore, the resonance locations of the coupling
fabricated device as shown in Fig. 13b using a CW-laser with the conven- modes can be tuned separately via heating the resonators. The benefits of
tional frequency scanning method, Boggio et al. demonstrated various photonic dimer enable the generation of wavelength-tunable normal-GVD
soliton crystal states with high conversion efficiency (Fig. 13d), featured by a microcombs in multiple resonances (Fig. 14c), improve the robustness of
deeply depleted pump mode with a weaker intensity in comparison with normal-GVD microcombs, and eliminate other parasitic effects in con-
other supermodes in spectra, as shown in Fig. 13e, f. Here, a microcomb in ventional microresonator that support more than one mode.
PSC state with a conversion efficiency as high as ~55% was achieved. The normal-GVD microcombs utilizing AMXs in photonic dimer
Although the solitons demonstrated here are less robust, its robustness can were first demonstrated by ref. 40. By tuning the power applied to the
be improved by referring to other geometry of resonator with feedback138–140. microheater of the auxiliary ring, the position of the AMX was controlled,
Meanwhile, combining the advantages of isolated pulse profiles and spec- facilitating the deterministic generation of normal-GVD microcombs with
trally smooth envelopes of bright solitons, the ultra-efficient microcombs selected repetition rates in a monolithic device. Almost simultaneously, the
enabled by microresonator with an interferometric back-coupling archi- same configuration was employed with two anomalous-GVD resonators by
tecture are suitable for various applications such as astronomy, spectro- ref. 142. They demonstrated a similarly controllable AMX and proved that it
scopy, and telecommunication. could improve the pump-to-comb conversion efficiency. Benefitting from
advances in micro/nanofabrication technologies, the potential of the pho-
Microcombs in dual-cavity coupled microresonator tonic dimer in promoting microcomb properties has been further unlocked.
Expanded from the mode splitting caused by coupling between different As shown in Fig. 15a–c, Kim et al. demonstrated turnkey normal-GVD
polarization or spatial modes in an individual resonator, dual-cavity coupled microcombs in a SiN photonic dimer device driven by a CW fixed-
microresonator architecture has recently emerged as a favorable alternative frequency laser86. The generated mode-locked normal-GVD microcombs
approach to generate normal-GVD microcombs with high conversion exhibited a high conversion efficiency of 40.6%, and the power of comb lines
efficiency aided by AMX. The typical structure of the dual-cavity coupled was greatly enhanced (as presented in Fig. 15c), which is encouraging for
microresonator is presented in Fig. 14a, which is composed of two linearly applications requiring sufficient power per line, such as data transmission4.
coupled cavities, main and auxiliary, with microheaters on top of one or Furthermore, the normal-GVD microcombs with high conversion effi-
both of them141. Because of the close proximity of the two similar micro- ciency generated in different photonic dimers were proved to be synchro-
resonators, such an architecture also called photonic dimer or photonic nized and coherent combined for a 2.9 dB increase in comb power. The

Fig. 14 | Dissipative soliton in a dual-cavity coupled microresonator. generated via selecting the frequency location of the split resonance. The dashed
a Microscope image of typical photonic dimer devices. A heater on top of the vertical lines indicate the center wavelength location of the initial (blue) and final
auxiliary microresonator controls the frequency location of the degeneracy point. (red) comb states. Images are adapted with permission from ref. 141. Copyright 2021
b Transmission spectra versus heater power, showing the frequency split due to the Springer Nature Limited.
coupling between resonances of resonators. c Wavelength-tunable microcombs
spectral profiles were relatively flat while maintaining a high total conver- as shown in Fig. 15g147. Besides the microcombs with high conversion
sion efficiency of 26%143. It enables fully integrated systems to break the efficiency aided by AMXs, photonic dimers were also demonstrated to
power limitation of an individual comb system. Taking advantages of the support other emergent nonlinear phenomena, such as Fano-shaped dis-
purity of the parameter space of photonic dimer, the normal-GVD persive waves and soliton hopping148, which are not contained in a single-
microcombs can be robustly triggered in a broad range of existence. Figure particle resonator and may further promote advance in integrated
14c shows the broadly tunable normal-GVD microcombs achieved by microcombs.
selecting the frequency location of the split resonance. Remarkably, the Accompanying the investigation on the photonic dimer, Xue et al.
conversion efficiency increased from 32 to 49% along with the increase in demonstrated an installation with two linearly coupled fiber cavities sup-
coupling rate at long wavelengths over the tuned frequency span141. The porting soliton combs with ultrahigh conversion efficiency149. Figure 16a
same configuration was further employed to generate a microcomb-based, illustrates the concept of super-efficient soliton generation in the mutually
widely and arbitrarily tunable laser source with a very narrow linewidth144. coupled optical cavities, where a normal dispersion resonator is coupled
More recently, a variant photonic dimer consisting of two anomalous- with an anomalous-GVD resonator. In contrast to the photonic dimers,
dispersion microresonators was demonstrated to generated bright Kerr where the auxiliary resonator served as an MI initiator or pump mode
solitons with high conversion efficiency145. Figure 15d presents the micro- frequency shifter, the normal-GVD resonator is described as a storage unit
scopy image of the photonic dimer, in which the two linearly coupled that recycles the pump field, leading to a high-efficiency soliton microcombs
cavities are significantly different in size. Both resonators have identical generation in the anomalous-GVD resonator. Despite being limited by the
cross-sections, but the auxiliary resonator is smaller, resulting in a larger FSR high intrinsic loss of the fiber cavities and a relatively large dimension
that minimizes the interaction between cavities at longitudinal modes corresponding to an extremely low soliton duty cycle, the average soliton
except the pump mode (Fig. 15e), which is responsible for the asymmetry power measured was only 4.6 × 10−5 of the input pump power (Fig. 16b). An
and fluctuation of normal-GVD microcombs in similar-scale dual-cavity ultrahigh conversion efficiency close to 100% was numerically predicted for
coupled microresonators. The pump is coupled into the main resonator and intrinsically lossless microcavities. It is an excellent paradigm promising a
the pump resonance is shifted towards the red side with the perturbation of different route to generate microcomb with high conversion efficiency in
AMX while other resonances remain. Physically, this mechanism breaks the integrated photonic dimers.
synchronization between pump mode and other comb-teeth modes that
require a high red-detuning to reach soliton regime, allowing DKS micro- Summary and outlook
combs with a high conversion efficiency under more sufficient pump In this review, we presented an overview of the microresonator-based Kerr
coupling. As shown in Fig. 15f, a broadband bright soliton microcombs with microcombs technologies that enable combs with high conversion effi-
a deeply depleted pump mode was demonstrated, achieving a conversion ciency. The reported Kerr microcombs with high conversion efficiency are
efficiency as high as 54%. It presents an order-of-magnitude improvement summarized in Table 1. With the in-depth understanding of nonlinear
compared with conventional soliton microcombs in CW driven anomalous physics, soliton states such as multi-soliton, soliton crystal, dark soliton, and
dispersion microresonators. Benefiting from the sample structure and laser cavity soliton can overcome the energy-conversion limitations of
relatively small footprint, it was proven to be suitable for wafer-level fabri- conventional single soliton in anomalous regime. Meanwhile, advances in
cation with high yield146. Furthermore, the same architecture was applied in micro/nanofabrication and photonic engineering capacity enable Kerr
the normal dispersion regime, a wideband platicon microcomb with fewer microcombs with high conversion efficiency generated with low loss,
spectral defects was generated and exhibited a conversion efficiency of 51%, unprecedented topological architectures, and novel material platforms.

Fig. 15 | Efficient microcombs in dual-cavity coupled microresonators. a Image of longitudinal mode distribution of the main (orange) and auxiliary cavity modes
dual-cavity coupled microresonators86. b Transmission of device in different states. (blue)147. f Measured bright-soliton microcombs with high conversion efficiency
Split resonances (i) as the main ring heater is tuned, (ii) before parametric oscillation, (red) and simulated spectral envelope (blue). The inset shows the measured beat note
and (iii) during comb generation86. c Measured comb spectrum from automated signal between comb lines145. g Optical spectrum of a platicon microcomb in a
generation with a comb line spacing of 201.6 GHz. Power levels of 50 μW, 100 μW, photonic dimer with two dissimilar resonators operating in the normal dispersion
and 1 mW are given by red, green, and black dashed lines, respectively86. d Image of regime147. Images are adapted with permission from refs. 86,145,147. Copyright 2019
photonic dimer devices with two dissimilar resonators147. e Illustration of the Optica Publishing Group. Copyright 2023 Springer Nature Limited.
Fig. 16 | Super-efficient temporal solitons in mutually coupled optical cavities. microcomb in the soliton cavity (blue). Inset shows the simulated soliton pulse
a Illustration of soliton generation with pump recycling in mutually coupled cavities. corresponding to the simulated microcomb (red line in the spectrum). The actually
The soliton circulates in a soliton cavity, while a pump cavity recycles the pump field measured average soliton power is only 4.6 × 10−5 of the input pump power. Images
to maximize energy transfer from the pump to the soliton. b Measured single-soliton are adapted with permission from ref. 149. Copyright 2019 Springer Nature Limited.
Aside from the impressive high conversion efficiency achieved by desired Kerr microcombs with high conversion efficiency. As presented in
Kerr microcombs in recent advances, substantial obstacles remain in the above section, current techniques for generating Kerr microcombs
bringing these microcombs from laboratory into real-world applications. with high conversion efficiency mostly rely on complex servo systems to
One critical problem is the level of integration. Although multi-soliton operate microcombs in desired states. Combining the rich dynamics
and dark soliton microcombs with high conversion efficiency have been involved in microcombs formation, the required monitoring and control
demonstrated via the laser-injection locking method, a fully integrated capabilities for microcombs operation pose obstacles to full integration
photonic system remains a challenge due to the requirement of Kerr and deployment. Besides, the bandwidth and flatness of Kerr microcombs
microresonator performance and the limited power of current on-chip with high conversion efficiency obtained by current technologies are
lasers150. Another key challenge is establishing a robust route to achieve the limited. While the comb-line power is enhanced due to the improvement

Table 1 | Summary of reported high conversion efficiency Kerr microcombs based on microresonators
Platform FSR of MRR (GHz) Dispersion type Excitation method Pump power (mW) Comb state Comb span (nm) Conversion efficiency
SiN MRR77 ~231 Normal Intrinsic mode splitting 656 Dark soliton ~250 31.8%
Fiber FP resonator50 9.8 Anomalous Pulsed pumping 3 Single-soliton 25 ~5%
SiN photonic dimer86 200 and 206 Anomalous Induced mode splitting 180 Non-solitonic 150 40.6%
SiN MRR156 ~1000 Anomalous Intrinsic mode splitting ~800 Soliton crystal Beyond an octave span ~50%
Hydex-resonator-filtered fiber ~48.97 Anomalous - 150 Laser cavity soliton ~50 75%
npj Nanophotonics | (2024)1:26

laser72
SiN MRR91 105.2 Normal Intrinsic mode splitting 350 Dark soliton crystal ~150 23%
SiN MRR126 229 Normal Intrinsic mode splitting 363 Dark soliton ~120 25%
SiN MRR100 27.88 Anomalous Pulsed pumping 60 and 620 Single-soliton 250 and 600 8% and 2.8%
https://doi.org/10.1038/s44310-024-00030-9
141
SiN photonic dimer 104.864 and 106.9 Normal Induced mode splitting 13–18 Dark soliton ~80 32–49%
Hydex-resonator-filtered fiber 48.9 Anomalous - 80–120 Laser cavity soliton ~50 72%
laser157
SiN MRR87 ~28.4 Anomalous Intrinsic mode splitting 150 Soliton crystal ~250 55%
FP-resonator-filtered fiber lasers135 10.18 Anomalous - ~600 Laser cavity soliton ~60 90.7%
crystal
Ta2O5 PhCR92 400 Normal Frequency-domain point defect 100 Dark soliton ~250 >86%
SiN MRR120 103.02 Anomalous Intrinsic mode splitting 300 Soliton crystal ~40 ~10%
SiO2 microdisk resonator52 ~22 Anomalous Pulsed pumping 25 and 12 Single-soliton ~100 34% and a transient 54%
SiN MRR84 ~150 and ~1000 Anomalous Injection locking ~35 and ~40 Multi-soliton ~280 and beyond 400 25 and 40%
SiN MRR90 ~ 1000 Anomalous Intrinsic mode splitting - Soliton crystal Beyond an octave span 7.7%, 11.4%, and 13.5%
128
SiN MRR 26.2 Normal Injection locking ~10 Platicon ~27 40%
AlGaAs MRR132 91 Normal Intrinsic mode splitting ~150 Dark soliton crystal ~50 ~15%
Ta2O5 PhCR125 200 Normal Frequency-domain point defect 33 Dark soliton ~240 21%
SiO2 microrod resonator98 ~21 and ~105 Anomalous CW laser frequency tuning 1.47 and - Single-soliton ~15 and ~30 20 and 56%
Fiber FP resonator104 ~1.84 Normal Pulsed pumping 200 Platicon ~250 19%
Fiber FP resonator105 ~10.21 Normal Pulsed pumping 142 Platicon ~35 23.4%
SiN MRR121 ~1000 Anomalous Intrinsic mode splitting 255 Soliton crystal ~1200 å 50%
GeSbS MRR131 ~200 Normal for TE00 mode Intrinsic mode splitting 33 Dark soliton ~80 ~21.8%
130
2023 SiN PhCR 298 Normal Frequency-domain point defect 120–400 Platicon ~80 27.6%
2023 SiN photonic dimer147 480.4 and 49.97 Normal Induced mode splitting ~47 Platicon 60 51%
SiN photonic dimer158 ~19.96 Normal Injection locking 30–40 Dark soliton 15 26%
SiN photonic dimer145 99.72 and 970 Anomalous Induced mode splitting 7.4 Single-soliton ~160 54%
SiN photonic dimer146 99.7 and 380 Anomalous Induced mode splitting 14.13 Single-soliton ~200 24–63%
SiN PhCR159 300 Anomalous Frequency-domain point defect & Injection 21 Single-soliton ~130 and ~180 ~10.5% and ~12.5%
locking
MRR Microresonator, Hydex High-index doped silica.
Review
17
of power conversion efficiency, the bandwidths of microcombs do not 9. Yu, M. et al. Silicon-chip-based mid-infrared dual-comb
broaden significantly, which hinders the generation of stabilized micro- spectroscopy. Nat. Commun. 9, 1869 (2018).
combs facilitated by self-referencing technique. Meanwhile, the flatness of 10. Stern, L. et al. Direct Kerr frequency comb atomic spectroscopy and
microcombs is not ideal due to the defective perturbations in the power stabilization. Sci. Adv. 6, eaax6230 (2020).
distribution caused by additional nonlinear effects such as AMXs and 11. Suh, M.-G., Yang, Q.-F., Yang, K. Y., Yi, X. & Vahala, K. J.
stimulated Raman scattering. Furthermore, a majority of the reported Microresonator soliton dual-comb spectroscopy. Science 354,
Kerr microcombs with high conversion efficiency are focused on com- 600–603 (2016).
munication bands. However, there is a significant demand for visible and 12. Dutt, A. et al. On-chip dual-comb source for spectroscopy. Sci. Adv.
mid-infrared microcombs in the fields of chemical/biological sensing and 4, e1701858 (2018).
molecular spectroscopy. The bandwidth of visible microcombs is quite 13. Newman, Z. L. et al. Architecture for the photonic integration of an
limited, and the conversion efficiency is low151. Moreover, there are no optical atomic clock. Optica 6, 680–685 (2018).
reports yet about mode-locked mid-infrared microcombs with high 14. Beloy, K. et al. Frequency ratio measurements with 18-digit accuracy
conversion efficiency based on Kerr microresonators. using a network of optical clocks. Nature 591, 564–569 (2021).
Despite there being numerous challenges for current techniques in 15. Newman, Z. L. et al. Architecture for the photonic integration of an
generating Kerr microcombs with high conversion efficiency, the current optical atomic clock. Optica 6, 680–685 (2019).
trend of integrated optics remains a promising path that can be extended 16. Nakamura, T. et al. Coherent optical clock down-conversion for
to achieve the desired goal. On the one hand, there are amounts of microwave frequencies with 10−18 instability.”Science 368,
emerging nonlinear physics phenomena that require further 889–892 (2020).
investigation111,148,152. With a broader insight beyond current focuses, it is 17. Liang, W. et al. High spectral purity Kerr frequency comb radio
anticipated that more favorable Kerr microcombs will be obtained based frequency photonic oscillator. Nat. Commun. 6, 7957 (2015).
on new mechanisms. On the other hand, microcavities are yet to be 18. Weng, W. et al. Spectral purification of microwave signals with
thoroughly developed and understood. For instance, there is still great disciplined dissipative Kerr solitons. Phys. Rev. Lett. 122,
potential to further improve the performance of Kerr microcombs in the 013902 (2019).
microresonators with higher Q values. Besides, there are several micro- 19. Kwon, D., Jeong, D., Jeon, I., Lee, H. & Kim, J. Ultrastable microwave
combs generated with high conversion efficiency in novel material plat- and soliton-pulse generation from fibre-photonic-stabilized
forms with both Kerr nonlinearity and second-order nonlinearity, which microcombs. Nat. Commun. 13, 381 (2022).
is beneficial for microcombs with extraordinary nonlinear dynamics in 20. Zhu, C. et al. Silicon integrated microwave photonic beamformer.
the visible band153–155. In summary, there is an anticipating margin on the Optica 7, 1162–1170 (2020).
material platform to improve the performance of microcombs until it 21. Tan, T. et al. Predicting Kerr soliton combs in microresonators via
reaches the ultimate capabilities of microresonators. Along such two deep neural networks. J. Lightwave Technol. 38, 6591–6599 (2020).
separated development routes, there are many open questions to be stu- 22. Xu, X. et al. Photonic perceptron based on a Kerr microcomb for
died and answered. It is encouraging to see that this field has become an high-speed, scalable, optical neural networks. Laser Photonics Rev.
active field in optics today, and we foresee that there will be more 14, 2000070 (2020).
achievements in the future that will make Kerr microcombs with high 23. Obrzud, E. et al. A microphotonic astrocomb. Nat. Photonics 13,
conversion efficiency the cornerstone in the next-generation integrated 31–35 (2019).
photonics. Over the next decade, we anticipate that the synergy between 24. Suh, M. G. et al. Searching for exoplanets using a microresonator
Kerr microcombs and their expanded applications will lead to further astrocomb. Nat. Photonics 13, 25–30 (2019).
exciting breakthroughs in improving the microcombs’ performance and 25. Caspani, L. et al. Multifrequency sources of quantum correlated
promote the widespread deployment of microcombs, accelerating the photon pairs on-chip: a path toward integrated Quantum Frequency
transition of this technology into commercial production. Combs. Nanophotonics 5, 351–362 (2016).
26. Wu, B.-H., Alexander, R. N., Liu, S. & Zhang, Z. Quantum computing
Received: 26 February 2024; Accepted: 26 June 2024; with multidimensional continuous-variable cluster states in a
scalable photonic platform. Phys. Rev. Res. 2, 023138 (2020).
27. Yang, Z. et al. A squeezed quantum microcomb on a chip. Nat.
References Commun. 12, 4781 (2021).
1. Hu, H. & Oxenlowe, L. K. Chip-based optical frequency combs for 28. Joshi, C. et al. Frequency-domain quantum interference with
high-capacity optical communications. Nanophotonics 10, correlated photons from an integrated microresonator. Phys. Rev.
1367–1385 (2021). Lett. 124, 143601 (2020).
2. Corcoran, B. et al. Ultra-dense optical data transmission over 29. Kippenberg, T. J., Gaeta, A. L., Lipson, M. & Gorodetsky, M. L.
standard fibre with a single chip source. Nat. Commun. 11, Dissipative Kerr solitons in optical microresonators. Science 361,
2568 (2020). eaan8083 (2018).
3. Geng, Y. et al. Coherent optical communications using coherence- 30. Herr, T. et al. Temporal solitons in optical microresonators. Nat.
cloned Kerr soliton microcombs. Nat. Commun. 13, 1070 (2022). Photonics 8, 145–152 (2014).
4. Rizzo, A. et al. Massively scalable Kerr comb-driven silicon photonic 31. Guo, H. et al. Universal dynamics and deterministic switching of
link. Nat. Photonics 17, 781–790 (2023). dissipative Kerr solitons in optical microresonators. Nat. Phys. 13,
5. Rizzo, A. et al. Petabit-scale silicon photonic interconnects with 94–102 (2017).
integrated Kerr frequency combs. IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum 32. Pavlov, N. G. et al. Soliton dual frequency combs in crystalline
Electron. 29, 3700120 (2023). microresonators. Opt. Lett. 42, 514–517 (2017).
6. Trocha, P. et al. Ultrafast optical ranging using microresonator 33. Lucas, E. et al. Spatial multiplexing of soliton microcombs. Nat.
soliton frequency combs. Science 359, 887–891 (2018). Photonics 12, 699–705 (2018).
7. Suh, M.-G. & Vahala, K. J. Soliton microcomb range measurement. 34. Wang, H. et al. Direct tuning of soliton detuning in an ultrahigh-Q
Science 359, 884–887 (2018). MgF2 crystalline resonator. Nanophotonics 12, 3757–3765 (2023).
8. Lukashchuk, A., Riemensberger, J., Karpov, M., Liu, J. & 35. Yi, X., Yang, Q. F., Yang, K. Y., Suh, M. G. & Vahala, K. Soliton
Kippenberg, T. J. Dual chirped microcomb based parallel ranging at frequency comb at microwave rates in a high-Q silica
megapixel-line rates. Nat. Commun. 13, 3280 (2022). microresonator. Optica 2, 1078–1085 (2015).

36. Brasch, V., Geiselmann, M., Pfeiffer, M. H. P. & Kippenberg, T. J. 61. Ji, X. et al. Ultra-low-loss silicon nitride photonics based on
Bringing short-lived dissipative Kerr soliton states in deposited films compatible with foundries. Laser Photonics Rev. 17,
microresonators into a steady state. Opt. Express 24, 2200544 (2023).
29312–29320 (2016). 62. Yu, M. et al. Breather soliton dynamics in microresonators. Nat.
37. Brasch, V. et al. Photonic chip-based optical frequency comb using Commun. 8, 14569 (2017).
soliton Cherenkov radiation. Science 351, 357–360 (2016). 63. Lucas, E., Karpov, M., Guo, H., Gorodetsky, M. L. & Kippenberg, T. J.
38. Joshi, C. et al. Thermally controlled comb generation and soliton Breathing dissipative solitons in optical microresonators. Nat.
modelocking in microresonators. Opt. Lett. 41, 2565–2568 (2016). Commun. 8, 736 (2017).
39. Xue, X. et al. Mode-locked dark pulse Kerr combs in normal- 64. Wan, S. et al. Frequency stabilization and tuning of breathing
dispersion microresonators. Nat. Photonics 9, 594–600 (2015). solitons in Si3N4 microresonators. Photonics Res. 8,
40. Xue, X. et al. Normal-dispersion microcombs enabled by 1342–1349 (2020).
controllable mode interactions. Laser Photonics Rev. 9, 65. Bao, C. et al. Observation of breathing dark pulses in normal dispersion
L23–L28 (2015). optical microresonators. Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 257401 (2018).
41. Ji, X. et al. Exploiting ultralow loss multimode waveguides for 66. Yang, Q. F., Yi, X., Yang, K. Y. & Vahala, K. Stokes solitons in optical
broadband frequency combs. Laser Photonics Rev. 15, microcavities. Nat. Phys. 13, 53–57 (2017).
2000353 (2021). 67. Tan, T. et al. Multispecies and individual gas molecule detection
42. Zhou, H. et al. Soliton bursts and deterministic dissipative Kerr using Stokes solitons in a graphene over-modal microresonator.
soliton generation in auxiliary-assisted microcavities. Light Sci. Nat. Commun. 12, 6716 (2021).
Appl. 8, 50 (2019). 68. Cole, D. C., Lamb, E. S., Del’Haye, P., Diddams, S. A. & Papp, S. B.
43. Zhang, S., Silver, J. M., Bi, T. & Del’Haye, P. Spectral extension and Soliton crystals in Kerr resonators. Nat. Photonics 11, 671–676 (2017).
synchronization of microcombs in a single microresonator. Nat. 69. Yao, B. et al. Gate-tunable frequency combs in graphene–nitride
Commun. 11, 6384 (2020). microresonators. Nature 558, 410–414 (2018).
44. Zhang, S. et al. Sub-milliwatt-level microresonator solitons with 70. Karpov, M. et al. Dynamics of soliton crystals in optical
extended access range using an auxiliary laser. Optica 6, microresonators. Nat. Phys. 15, 1071–1077 (2019).
206–212 (2019). 71. Weng, W. et al. Heteronuclear soliton molecules in optical
45. Lu, Z. et al. Deterministic generation and switching of dissipative microresonators. Nat. Commun. 11, 2402 (2020).
Kerr soliton in a thermally controlled micro-resonator. AIP Adv. 9, 72. Bao, H. et al. Laser cavity-soliton microcombs. Nat. Photonics 13,
025314 (2019). 384–389 (2019).
46. Stone, J. R. et al. Thermal and nonlinear dissipative-soliton 73. Rowley, M. et al. Self-emergence of robust solitons in a microcavity.
dynamics in Kerr-microresonator frequency combs. Phys. Rev. Lett. Nature 608, 303–309 (2022).
121, 063902 (2018). 74. Cutrona, A. et al. Stability of laser cavity-solitons for metrological
47. Fujii, S. et al. Versatile tuning of Kerr soliton microcombs in applications. Appl. Phys. Lett. 122, 121104 (2023).
crystalline microresonators. Commun. Phys. 6, 1-8 (2023). 75. Huang, S. W. et al. Mode-locked ultrashort pulse generation from
48. He, Y. et al. Self-starting bi-chromatic LiNbO3 soliton microcomb. on-chip normal dispersion microresonators. Phys. Rev. Lett. 114,
Optica 6, 1138–1144 (2019). 053901 (2015).
49. He, Y., Ling, J., Li, M. & Lin, Q. Perfect soliton crystals on demand. 76. Rivas, P. P., Gomila, D., Knobloch, E., Coen, S. & Gelens, L. Origin
Laser Photonics Rev. 14, 6 (2020). and stability of dark pulse Kerr combs in normal dispersion
50. Obrzud, E., Lecomte, S. & Herr, T. Temporal solitons in resonators. Opt. Lett. 41, 2402–2405 (2016).
microresonators driven by optical pulses. Nat. Photonics 11, 77. Xue, X., Wang, P.-H., Xuan, Y., Qi, M. & Weiner, A. M. Microresonator
600–607 (2017). Kerr frequency combs with high conversion efficiency. Laser
51. Cole, D. C. et al. Kerr-microresonator solitons from a chirped Photonics Rev. 11, 1600276 (2017).
background. Optica 5, 1304–1310 (2018). 78. Fulop, A. et al. High-order coherent communications using mode-
52. Li, J. et al. Efficiency of pulse pumped soliton microcombs. Optica 9, locked dark-pulse Kerr combs from microresonators. Nat. Commun.
231–239 (2022). 9, 1598 (2018).
53. Macnaughtan, M., Erkintalo, M., Coen, S., Murdoch, S. & Xu, Y. 79. Chang, L., Liu, S. & Bowers, J. E. Integrated optical frequency comb
Temporal characteristics of stationary switching waves in a normal technologies. Nat. Photonics 16, 95–108 (2022).
dispersion pulsed-pump fiber cavity. Opt. Lett. 48, 80. Bao, C. et al. Nonlinear conversion efficiency in Kerr frequency comb
4097–4100 (2023). generation. Opt. Lett. 39, 6126–6129 (2014).
54. Weng, W. et al. Gain-switched semiconductor laser driven soliton 81. Jang, J. K. et al. Conversion efficiency of soliton Kerr combs. Opt.
microcombs. Nat. Commun. 12, 1425 (2021). Lett. 46, 3657–3660 (2021).
55. Pavlov, N. G. et al. Narrow-linewidth lasing and soliton Kerr 82. Wang, P.-H. et al. Intracavity characterization of micro-comb
microcombs with ordinary laser diodes. Nat. Photonics 12, generation in the single-soliton regime. Opt. Express 24,
694–698 (2018). 10890–10897 (2016).
56. Raja, A. S. et al. Electrically pumped photonic integrated soliton 83. Yi, X., Yang, Q.-F., Yang, K. Y. & Vahala, K. Theory and measurement
microcomb. Nat. Commun. 10, 680 (2019). of the soliton self-frequency shift and efficiency in optical
57. Shen, B. et al. Integrated turnkey soliton microcombs. Nature 582, microcavities. Opt. Lett. 41, 3419–3422 (2016).
365–369 (2020). 84. Dmitriev, N. Y. et al. Hybrid integrated dual-microcomb source.
58. Xiang, C. et al. Laser soliton microcombs heterogeneously Phys. Rev. Appl. 18, 034068 (2022).
integrated on silicon. Science 373, 99–103 (2021). 85. Lu, Z. et al. Synthesized soliton crystals. Nat. Commun. 12,
59. Jin, W. et al. Hertz-linewidth semiconductor lasers using CMOS- 3179 (2021).
ready ultra-high-Q microresonators. Nat. Photonics 15, 86. Kim, B. Y. et al. Turn-key, high-efficiency Kerr comb source. Opt.
346–353 (2021). Lett. 44, 4475–4478 (2019).
60. Stern, B., Ji, X., Okawachi, Y., Gaeta, A. L. & Lipson, M. Battery- 87. Boggio, J. M. C. et al. Efficient Kerr soliton comb generation in micro-
operated integrated frequency comb generator. Nature 562, resonator with interferometric back-coupling. Nat. Commun. 13,
401–405 (2018). 1292 (2022).

88. Godey, C. et al. Stability analysis of the spatiotemporal Lugiato- 111. Anderson, M. H. et al. Dissipative solitons and switching waves in
Lefever model for Kerr optical frequency combs in the anomalous dispersion-modulated Kerr cavities. Phys. Rev. X 13, 011040 (2023).
and normal dispersion regimes. Phys. Rev. A 89, 03814 (2014). 112. Chang, H. C. Stability analysis of self-injection-locked oscillators.
89. Mosca, S. et al. Modulation instability induced frequency comb IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech. 51, 1989–1993 (2003).
generation in a continuously pumped optical parametric oscillator. 113. Choi, J. J. & Choi, G. W. Experimental observation of frequency
Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 093903 (2018). locking and noise reduction in a self-injection-locked magnetron.
90. Weng, H. et al. Dual-mode microresonators as straightforward IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 54, 3430–3432 (2007).
access to octave-spanning dissipative Kerr solitons. APL Photonics 114. Liang, W. et al. Ultralow noise miniature external cavity
7, 066103 (2022). semiconductor laser. Nat. Commun. 6, 7371 (2015).
91. Ye, Z., Twayana, K., Andrekson, P. A. & Torres-Company, V. High-Q 115. Voloshin, A. S. et al. Dynamics of soliton self-injection locking in
Si3N4 microresonators based on a subtractive processing for Kerr optical microresonators. Nat. Commun. 12, 235 (2021).
nonlinear optics. Opt. Express 27, 35719–35727 (2019). 116. Hu, J. et al. Reconfigurable radiofrequency filters based on versatile
92. Zang, J., Yu, S.-P., Carlson, D. R., Briles, T. C., & Papp, S. B. Laser- soliton microcombs. Nat. Commun. 11, 4377 (2020).
power consumption of soliton formation in a bidirectional Kerr 117. Liu, H. et al. Observation of deterministic double dissipative-Kerr-
resonator. arXiv: 2401.16740 [physics.optics]. soliton generation with avoided mode crossing. Phys. Rev. Res. 5,
93. Lugiato, L. A. & Lefever, R. Spatial dissipative structures in passive 013172 (2023).
optical-systems. Phys. Rev. Lett. 58, 2209–2211 (1987). 118. Wang, W. et al. Robust soliton crystals in a thermally controlled
94. Haelterman, M., Trillo, S. & Wabnitz, S. Dissipative modulation microresonator. Opt. Lett. 43, 2002–2005 (2018).
instability in a nonlinear dispersive ring cavity. Opt. Commun. 91, 119. Li, J. et al. Thermal tuning of mode crossing and the perfect soliton
401–407 (1992). crystal in a Si3N4 microresonator. Opt. Express 30,
95. Wabnitz, S. Suppression of interactions in a phase-locked soliton 13690–13698 (2022).
optical memory. Opt. Lett. 18, 601–603 (1993). 120. Yuan, J. et al. Defective soliton crystal microcomb in silicon nitride
96. Gaertner, J. et al. Bandwidth and conversion efficiency analysis of microresonator. Asia Communications and Photonics Conference
dissipative Kerr soliton frequency combs based on bifurcation (ACP) / International Conference on Information Photonics and
theory. Phys. Rev. A 100, 033819 (2019). Optical Communications (IPOC) p 1896–1898 (2022).
97. Kondratiev, N. M., Lobanov, V. E., Cordette, S. J., & Bilenko, I. A. Kerr 121. Afridi, A. A. et al. Versatile octave-spanning soliton crystals with high
soliton comb generation efficiency in microresonators and conversion efficiency in a Si3N4 microresonator. Opt. Express 31,
microresonator coupling rate. Conference on Quantum and 33191–33199 (2023).
Nonlinear Optics IX 12323 (1232303) (2022). 122. Fujii, S. & Tanabe, T. Dispersion engineering and measurement of
98. Cui, W. et al. High energy efficiency soliton microcomb generation in whispering gallery mode microresonator for Kerr frequency comb
high coupling strength, large mode volume, and ultra-high-Q micro- generation. Nanophotonics 9, 1087–1104 (2020).
cavity. Chin. Opt. Lett. 21, 101902 (2023). 123. Lobanov, V. E., Kondratiev, N. M., Shitikov, A. E., Galiev, R. R. &
99. Leo, F. et al. Temporal cavity solitons in one-dimensional Kerr media Bilenko, I. A. Generation and dynamics of solitonic pulses due to
as bits in an all-optical buffer. Nat. Photonics 4, 471–476 (2010). pump amplitude modulation at normal group-velocity dispersion.
100. Anderson, M. H. et al. Photonic chip-based resonant Phys. Rev. A 100, 013807 (2019).
supercontinuum via pulse-driven Kerr microresonator solitons. 124. Liu, H. et al. Stimulated generation of deterministic platicon
Optica 8, 771–779 (2021). frequency microcombs. Photonics Res. 10, 1877–1885 (2022).
101. Anderson, M. H. et al. Zero dispersion Kerr solitons in optical 125. Yu, S.-P., Lucas, E., Zang, J. & Papp, S. B. A continuum of bright and
microresonators. Nat. Commun. 13, 4764 (2022). dark-pulse states in a photonic-crystal resonator. Nat. Commun. 13,
102. Xu, Y. et al. Frequency comb generation in a pulse-pumped normal 3134 (2022).
dispersion Kerr mini-resonator. Opt. Lett. 46, 512–515 (2021). 126. Nazemosadat, E. et al. Switching dynamics of dark-pulse Kerr
103. Li, Z., Xu, Y., Coen, S., Murdoch, S. G. & Erkintalo, M. Experimental frequency comb states in optical microresonators. Phys. Rev. A 103,
observations of bright dissipative cavity solitons and their collapsed 013513 (2021).
snaking in a Kerr resonator with normal dispersion driving. Optica 7, 127. Lobanov, V. E., Lihachev, G., Kippenberg, T. J. & Gorodetsky, M. L.
1195–1203 (2020). Frequency combs and platicons in optical microresonators with
104. Li, T., Wu, K., Zhang, X., Cai, M. & Chen, J. Experimental observation normal GVD. Opt. Express 23, 7713–7721 (2015).
of stimulated Raman scattering enabled localized structure in a 128. Lihachev, G. et al. Platicon microcomb generation using laser self-
normal dispersion FP resonator. Optica 10, 1389–1397 (2023). injection locking. Nat. Commun. 13, 1771 (2022).
105. Xiao, Z. et al. Modeling the Kerr comb of a pulse pumped F-P 129. Yu, S.-P. et al. Spontaneous pulse formation in edgeless photonic
microresonator with normal dispersion. J. Lightwave Technol. 41, crystal resonators. Nat. Photonics 15, 461–467 (2021).
7408–7417 (2023). 130. Li, J. et al. Symmetrically dispersion-engineered microcombs.
106. Xu, Y. et al. Harmonic and rational harmonic driving of Commun. Phys. 6, 335 (2023).
microresonator soliton frequency combs. Optica 7, 940–946 (2020). 131. Xia, D. et al. Integrated chalcogenide photonics for microresonator
107. Huang, Y. et al. Temporal soliton and optical frequency comb soliton combs. Laser Photonics Rev. 17, 2200219 (2023).
generation in a Brillouin laser cavity. Optica 6, 1491–1497 (2019). 132. Shu, H. et al. Submilliwatt, widely tunable coherent microcomb
108. Zhang, X. et al. Flat-top soliton frequency comb generation through generation with feedback-free operation. Adv. Photonics 5,
intra-cavity dispersion engineering in a Brillouin laser cavity. J. 036007 (2023).
Lightwave Technol. 41, 1820–1833 (2023). 133. Shu, H. et al. Microcomb-driven silicon photonic systems. Nature
109. Jang, J. K., Erkintalo, M., Coen, S. & Murdoch, S. G. Temporal 605, 457–463 (2022).
tweezing of light through the trapping and manipulation of temporal 134. Peccianti, M. et al. Demonstration of a stable ultrafast laser based on
cavity solitons. Nat. Commun. 6, 7370 (2015). a nonlinear microcavity. Nat. Commun. 3, 765 (2012).
110. Hendry, I. et al. Spontaneous symmetry breaking and trapping of 135. Nie, M. et al. Dissipative soliton generation and real-time dynamics
temporal Kerr cavity solitons by pulsed or amplitude-modulated in microresonator-filtered fiber lasers. Light Sci. Appl. 11,
driving fields. Phys. Rev. A 97, 053834 (2018). 296 (2022).

136. Bao, H. et al. Turing patterns in a fiber laser with a nested 156. Karpov, M., Pfeiffer, M. H. P., Liu, J., Lukashchuk, A. & Kippenberg,
microresonator: robust and controllable microcomb generation. T. J. Photonic chip-based soliton frequency combs covering the
Phys. Rev. Res. 2, 023395 (2020). biological imaging window. Nat. Commun. 9, 1146 (2018).
137. Nie, M. et al. Turnkey photonic flywheel in a microresonator-filtered 157. Cutrona, A. et al. High parametric efficiency in laser cavity-soliton
laser. Nat. Commun. 15, 55 (2024). microcombs. Opt. Express 30, 39816–39825 (2022).
138. Zhou, L. & Poon, A. W. Electrically reconfigurable silicon microring 158. Ji, Q.-X. et al. Engineered zero-dispersion microcombs using
resonator-based filter with waveguide-coupled feedback. Opt. CMOS-ready photonics. Optica 10, 279–285 (2023).
Express 15, 9194–9204 (2007). 159. Ulanov, A. E. et al. Synthetic reflection self-injection-locked
139. Gong, Z. et al. Photonic dissipation control for Kerr soliton microcombs. Nat. Photonics are 18, 294-299 (2024).
generation in strongly Raman-active media. Phys. Rev. Lett. 125,
183901 (2020). Acknowledgements
140. Guan, G. et al. Numerical investigation of on-chip multi-gas sensing The work was supported in part by the Key Technologies Research and
using a low-repetition-frequency microcavity Kerr comb with Development Program under Grant No. 2022YFB2802401, the National
backward interference structure. J. Lightwave Technol. 41, Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under the Grant No. 62341508,
3208–3224 (2023). NSFC Excellent Young Scholars Fund (Overseas) and the Optica
141. Helgason, O. B. et al. Dissipative solitons in photonic molecules. Nat. Foundation Challenge Award, the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program of
Photonics 15, 305–310 (2021). CPSF under Grant No. GZC20231555, and the China Postdoctoral Science
142. Miller, S. A. et al. Tunable frequency combs based on dual microring Foundation under Grant No. 2023M742228.
resonators. Opt. Express 23, 21527–21540 (2015).
143. Kim, B. Y. et al. Coherent combining for high-power Kerr combs. Author contributions
Laser Photonics Rev. 17, 2200607 (2023). X. Zhang and X. Ji conceived the work. X. Zhang prepared the manuscript.
144. Skehan, J. C., Helgason, O. B., Schroeder, J., Torres-Company, V. & X. Ji and Y. Su supervised the project. All authors reviewed and edited the
Andrekson, P. A. Widely tunable narrow linewidth laser source based manuscript.
on photonic molecule microcombs and optical injection locking.
Opt. Express 30, 22388–22395 (2022). Competing interests
145. Helgason, O. B. et al. Surpassing the nonlinear conversion efficiency The authors declare no competing interests.
of soliton microcombs. Nat. Photonics 17, 992–999 (2023).
146. Girardi, M., Helgason, O. B., Ortega, C. H. L., Rebolledo-Salgado, I. & Additional information
Torres-Company, V. Superefficient microcombs at the wafer level. Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to
arXiv, (2023). 2309.02280. Xingchen Ji.
147. Rebolledo-Salgado, I. et al. Platicon dynamics in photonic
molecules. Commun. Phys. 6, 303 (2023). Reprints and permissions information is available at
148. Tikan, A. et al. Emergent nonlinear phenomena in a driven dissipative http://www.nature.com/reprints
photonic dimer. Nat. Phys. 17, 604–610 (2021).
149. Xue, X., Zheng, X. & Zhou, B. Super-efficient temporal solitons in Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
mutually coupled optical cavities. Nat. Photonics 13, claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
616–622 (2019).
150. Kondratiev, N. M. et al. Recent advances in laser self-injection
locking to high-Q microresonators. Front. Phys. 18, 21305 (2023). Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons
151. Lee, S. H. et al. Towards visible soliton microcomb generation. Nat. Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing,
Commun. 8, 1295 (2017). adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long
152. Wang, H. et al. Dirac solitons in optical microresonators. Light Sci. as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source,
Appl. 9, 1-15 (2020). provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes
153. Guo, X. et al. Efficient generation of a near-visible frequency comb were made. The images or other third party material in this article are
via Cherenkov-like radiation from a Kerr microcomb. Phys. Rev. included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated
Appl. 10, 014012 (2018). otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the
154. Bruch, A. W. et al. Pockels soliton microcomb. Nat. Photonics 15, article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted
21–27 (2021). by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to
155. Lu, J. et al. Two-colour dissipative solitons and breathers in obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this
microresonator second-harmonic generation. Nat. Commun. 14, licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
2798 (2023).
© The Author(s) 2024

Advances in Resonator-Based Kerr Frequency Combs With High Conversion Ef Ciencies

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Advances in Resonator-Based Kerr Frequency Combs With High Conversion Ef Ciencies

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Advances in Resonator-Based Kerr Frequency Combs With High Conversion Ef Ciencies

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

npj | nanophotonics Review

Advances in resonator-based Kerr

Recent developments in resonator-based Kerr frequency combs promise excellent applications in a

npj Nanophotonics | (2024)1:26 1

npj Nanophotonics | (2024)1:26 2

npj Nanophotonics | (2024)1:26 3

npj Nanophotonics | (2024)1:26 4

npj Nanophotonics | (2024)1:26 5

npj Nanophotonics | (2024)1:26 6

npj Nanophotonics | (2024)1:26 7

npj Nanophotonics | (2024)1:26 8

npj Nanophotonics | (2024)1:26 9

npj Nanophotonics | (2024)1:26 10

Fig. 9 | Dark pulses in a normal-dispersion

Fig. 10 | Deterministic switching of dark pulses.

npj Nanophotonics | (2024)1:26 11

npj Nanophotonics | (2024)1:26 12

Fig. 12 | Laser cavity solitons generation in

npj Nanophotonics | (2024)1:26 13

npj Nanophotonics | (2024)1:26 14

npj Nanophotonics | (2024)1:26 15

npj Nanophotonics | (2024)1:26 16

npj Nanophotonics | (2024)1:26

npj Nanophotonics | (2024)1:26 18

npj Nanophotonics | (2024)1:26 19

npj Nanophotonics | (2024)1:26 20

npj Nanophotonics | (2024)1:26 21

You might also like