Fig. 4: Observation and characterization of noise-quenching dynamics within discrete platicon states.

a Optical spectra of four platicon states with DFB current values of \(313.25,315.77,316.23\) and \(316.61\,{\rm{mA}}\). b Measured platicon’s optical power (proportional to the PD’s DC output voltage, blue dots) and the microwave phase noise \({S}_{\phi }\) at \(10\,{\rm{kHz}}\) Fourier offset frequency of the \({f}_{{\rm{r}}}\approx 10.7\,{\rm{GHz}}\) carrier (red dots). c Measured microwave carrier frequency of \({f}_{{\rm{r}}}\approx 10.7\,{\rm{GHz}}\) (light blue dots) and the derivative of \({f}_{{\rm{r}}}\) to the DFB current (i.e. \({\rm{d}}{f}_{{\rm{r}}}/{\rm{d}}I\), purple dots). \({f}_{0}=10.685550\,{\rm{GHz}}\) is a frequency offset. d Measured microwave power of the \({f}_{{\rm{r}}}\approx 10.7\,{\rm{GHz}}\) carrier. Within each platicon state, the gray dashed arrows across b–d highlight the noise-quenching states, where the local minima of \({S}_{\phi }\) always coincide with the local maxima of \({f}_{{\rm{r}}}\) and microwave power, as well as \({\rm{d}}{f}_{{\rm{r}}}/{\rm{d}}I=0\) points