Nonlinear-mode-coupling-induced soliton crystal dynamics in optical microresonators

Dissipative Kerr solitons based on microresonators have wide applications from optical communications to optical ranging for the high-repetition rate and broad bandwidth. Restricted by the bending losses and dispersion control of the optical waveguide, it could be hard to further realize ultrahigh-repetetion rate reaching several terahertz by simply reducing the size of microresonators. Soliton crystals, which completely fill the microresonator with a series of equidistant temporal pulses, can be an effective approach to realize ultrahigh-repetition rate in the common cavity length. In this paper, we investigate the generation of soliton crystals in the presence of nonlinear mode coupling, which can induce a modulation on the background wave and modify the cavity dynamics. Under the condition of suitable wave vector mismatch and nonlinear-coupling-coefficient, high-deterministic perfect soliton crystals can be realized. Besides, the drifting behavior of the soliton crystals is demonstrated to be determined by the match between the wave vector mismatch and nonlinear coupling coefficient. Finally, we successfully observe the recrystallization of the perfect soliton crystals.