Nonlinear filtering of an optical pulse train using dissipative Kerr solitons

Abstract

The capability to store light for extended periods of time enables optical cavities to act as narrowband optical filters, whose linewidth corresponds to the cavity’s inverse energy storage time. Here, we report on nonlinear filtering of an optical pulse train based on temporal dissipative Kerr solitons in microresonators. Our experimental results in combination with analytical and numerical modeling show that soliton dynamics enables information storage about the system’s physical state longer than the cavity’s energy storage time, thereby giving rise to a filter width that can be more than an order of magnitude below the cavity’s intrinsic linewidth. Such nonlinear optical filtering can find immediate applications in optical metrology, and low-timing jitter ultrashort optical pulse generation and potentially opens new avenues for microwave photonics.