Waves, Solitons and Turbulence in Optical Systems - Abstract

Wen, Henry

Kuramoto-like self-organization in cavity soliton modelocking of Kerr frequency combs.

We show that cavity soliton modelocking dynamics in parametrically driven Kerr frequency combs occurs through a two-part process, the first of which is a phase entrainment process and the second of which is equivalent to synchronization phenomena that occur in many physical systems as described by the Kuramoto model for coupled oscillators. We present a reduced set of modal phase equations derived from the Lugiato-Lefever equations that is amenable to an order parameter formulation and exhibits coherence-coupling feedback. The link between the Kuramoto model and the phase locking of a massively multi-modal distribution of oscillators constitutes a form of optical syncopation. This analysis is already applicable to the modelocking behavior of saturable absorption based modelocked lasers.