Turnkey Deterministic Soliton Crystal Generation

Abstract

The deterministic generation of robust soliton combs is of great importance for the applications of optical frequency combs. As a novel form of microcomb, soliton crystals (SCs) have been shown to have advantages of easy generation, high conversion efficiency (CE), and thermal robustness. Here, the turnkey deterministic generation of a “palm-like” SC is reported with a free-running scheme. The robustness of turnkey SC generation is systematically examined in multiple aspects, including success rate, thermal robustness, and long-term stability. The experimental results reveal that our turnkey SC generation achieves nearly 100$\%$ success rate and power variations within $\pm$1.5 dB over 100 trials of 2 samples. Additionally, this state shows minimal sensitivity to thermal drifts and remains robust under environmental changes during a 4-hour laboratory test period.