frequency combs

Humanity’s desire to measure time more and more accurately has been a driving force in technological development, and improved clocks and the innovations behind them have repeatedly delivered unexpected applications and scientific discoveries. For instance, when sailors needed high precision timekeeping to better navigate the open seas, it motivated the development of mechanical clocks. And in turn, more accurate clocks allowed better measurements in astronomy and physics. Now, clocks are inescapable parts of daily life, but the demands of GPS, space navigation and other applications are still motivating scientists to push timekeeping to new extremes.

Our paper, in collaboration with Prof. John Bowers' group from University of California at Santa Barbara, shows the generation of a Dissipative Kerr Soliton (DKS) in a III-V platform, namely AlGaAs-on-insulator, thanks to the quenching of the thermo-refractive effect at cryogenic temperaure.