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Laser power consumption of soliton formation in a bidirectional Kerr resonator

Nature Photonics volume 19, pages 510–517 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Laser sources power ultrafast data transmission, computing acceleration, access to ultra-high-speed signalling, and sensing applications such as chemical detection, distance measurements and pattern recognition. The ever-growing scale of these applications drives innovation in multiwavelength lasers for massively parallel processing. We report a nanophotonic Kerr-resonator circuit that converts the power of an input laser into a normal-dispersion soliton frequency comb at approaching unit efficiency. By coupling forward and backward propagation, we realize a bidirectional Kerr resonator that supports universal phase matching but also opens excess loss by double-sided emission. We therefore induce reflection of the resonator’s forward, external coupling port to favour backward propagation, resulting in efficient, unidirectional soliton formation. Coherent backscattering with nanophotonics provides the control to put arbitrary phase-matching and efficient laser power consumption on equal footing in Kerr resonators. In the overcoupled-resonator regime, we measure 65% conversion efficiency for a 40 mW input pump laser; the nonlinear circuit consumes 97% of the pump, generating the maximum possible comb power. Our work opens up high-efficiency soliton formation in integrated photonics, exploring how energy flows in nonlinear circuits and enabling laser sources for applications such as advanced transmission, computing, quantum sensing and artificial intelligence.

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Fig. 1: Soliton formation in the nanophotonic circuit.
Fig. 2: Characterization of the nanophotonic circuit structures.
Fig. 3: Laser power consumption and CE in the nanophotonic circuit.
Fig. 4: Practical characteristics of the nanophotonic circuit.

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Data availability

Source Data are provided with this paper. Further data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code availability

The simulation codes used in this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Dan and Y. Li for reading the manuscript. This work is a contribution of NIST and not subject to US copyright. This research has been funded by DARPA PIPES (J.Z., S.-P.Y., H.L., Y.J., S.B.P.), AFOSR FA9550-20-1-0004 project no. 19RT1019 (S.B.P.), NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institute Award OMA-2016244 (S.B.P.), and NIST on a Chip (S.B.P.). Mention of specific companies or trade names is for scientific communication only and does not constitute an endorsement by NIST.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Time and Frequency Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO, USA

    Jizhao Zang, Su-Peng Yu, Haixin Liu, Yan Jin, Travis C. Briles, David R. Carlson & Scott B. Papp

  2. Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA

    Jizhao Zang, Su-Peng Yu, Haixin Liu, Yan Jin & Scott B. Papp

  3. Octave Photonics, Louisville, CO, USA

    David R. Carlson

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  1. Jizhao Zang
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Contributions

S.-P.Y. conceived the experiment. S.-P.Y. and J.Z. designed the nanophotonic circuit. J.Z. performed the optical measurements and numerical simulations. H. L. and Y. J. contributed to the theoretical understanding. T.C.B. and D.R.C. fabricated the nanophotonic circuits. S.B.P. contributed to the theoretical understanding and supervised the project. J.Z. and S.B.P analysed the data and wrote the manuscript. All authors reviewed the results and provided feedback on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jizhao Zang.

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Nature Photonics thanks Xiaoxiao Xue and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Zang, J., Yu, SP., Liu, H. et al. Laser power consumption of soliton formation in a bidirectional Kerr resonator. Nat. Photon. 19, 510–517 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-025-01624-1

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