Second-harmonic-assisted four-wave mixing in chip-based microresonator frequency comb generation

TLDR

Simultaneous Kerr comb formation and second‑harmonic generation in on‑chip microresonators can facilitate comb self‑referencing for optical clocks, yet the interplay of second‑ and third‑order nonlinearities creates complex cavity dynamics that remain poorly understood. The study demonstrates that fundamental–second‑harmonic interaction provides a new phase‑matching route for four‑wave mixing, enabling comb generation in the normal dispersion regime where it is normally prohibited. The authors derived coupled time‑domain mean‑field equations and performed simulations that qualitatively match experimental observations. The results reveal a new method to surpass the dispersion limit for simultaneous Kerr comb and second‑harmonic generation, potentially benefiting near‑visible optical clocks where normal dispersion dominates.

Abstract

Simultaneous Kerr comb formation and second-harmonic generation with on-chip microresonators can greatly facilitate comb self-referencing for optical clocks and frequency metrology. Moreover, the presence of both second- and third-order nonlinearities results in complex cavity dynamics that is of high scientific interest but is still far from being well-understood. Here, we demonstrate that the interaction between the fundamental and the second-harmonic waves can provide an entirely new way of phase matching for four-wave mixing in optical microresonators, enabling the generation of optical frequency combs in the normal dispersion regime under conditions where comb creation is ordinarily prohibited. We derive new coupled time-domain mean-field equations and obtain simulation results showing good qualitative agreement with our experimental observations. Our findings provide a novel way of overcoming the dispersion limit for simultaneous Kerr comb formation and second-harmonic generation, which might prove to be especially important in the near-visible to visible range where several atomic transitions commonly used for the stabilization of optical clocks are located and where the large normal material dispersion is likely to dominate.