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Absolute distance measurement with low return power, fast measurement speed, high precision, and immunity to intensity fluctuations is highly demanded in nanotechnology. However, achieving all these objectives simultaneously remains a significant challenge for miniaturized systems. Here, we demonstrate dual-comb ranging (DCR) that encompasses all these capabilities by using counter-propagating (CP) solitons generated in an integrated Si$_3$N$_4$ microresonator. We derive equations linking the DCR precision with comb line powers, revealing the advantage of microcomb's large line spacing in precise ranging. Leveraging the advantage, our system reaches 1-nm-precision and measures nm-scale vibration at frequencies up to 0.9 MHz. We also show that precise DCR is possible even in the presence of strong intensity noise and loss, using a mean received photon number as low as 5.5$\times$10$^{-4}$ per pulse. Our work establishes an optimization principle for dual-comb systems and bridges high performance ranging with foundry-manufactured photonic chips.

Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) has emerged as an indispensable tool in autonomous technology. Among its various techniques, frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) LiDAR stands out due to its capability to operate with ultralow return power, immunity to unwanted light, and simultaneous acquisition of distance and velocity. However, achieving a rapid update rate with sub-micron precision remains a challenge for FMCW LiDARs. Here, we present such a LiDAR with a sub-10 nm precision and a 24.6 kHz update rate by combining a broadband Fourier domain mode-locked (FDML) laser with a silicon nitride soliton microcomb. An ultrahigh frequency chirp rate up to 320 PHz/s is linearized by a 50 GHz microcomb to reach this performance. Our theoretical analysis also contributes to resolving the challenge of FMCW velocity measurements with nonlinear frequency sweeps and enables us to realize velocity measurement with an uncertainty below 0.4 mm/s. Our work shows how nanophotonic microcombs can unlock the potential of ultrafast frequency sweeping lasers for applications including LiDAR, optical coherence tomography and sensing.

Spatiotemporal mode-locking (STML) has become an emerging approach to realize organized wavepackets in high-dimensional nonlinear photonic systems. Mode-locking in one dimensional systems employs a saturable absorber to resist fluctuations in the temporal domain. Analogous suppression of fluctuations in the space-time domains to retain a consistent output should also exist for STML. However, experimental evidence of such a resistance remains elusive, to our knowledge. Here, we report experimental observation of such a spatiotemporal stabilizer in STML, by embedding a spatial light modulator (SLM) into a multi-mode fibre (MMF) laser. Mode decomposition reveals the mode content remains steady for an STML state when applying phase perturbations on the SLM. Conversely, the mode content changes significantly for a non-STML lasing state. Numerical simulations confirm our observation and show that spatial filtering and saturable absorber mainly contribute to the observed stability. The capability to resist the spatial phase fluctuations is observed to depend on the intracavity pulse energy as well as the modal pulse energy condensed in the low-order modes. Our work constitutes another building block for the concept of STML in multi-mode photonic systems.

Rotation symmetry of microresonators supports the generation of phase-locked counter-propagating (CP) solitons that can potentially miniaturize dual-comb systems. Realization of these dual-comb compatible solitons in photonic integrated circuits remains a challenge. Here, we synthesized such CP solitons in an integrated silicon nitride microresonator and observed forced soliton oscillation due to rhythmic, time-varying soliton interactions. The interactions result in seconds mutual-coherence passively. Temporal motion in the soliton streams is discerned by measuring a quadratic-scaling frequency noise peaks and an inverse quadratic-scaling microcomb sidebands. By generating a CP soliton trimer to have two synchronized solitons in one of the orbiting directions, we resolve the incapability of measuring two unsynchronized CP soliton dimer pulses by optical cross-correlation, and show CP solitons undergo complex motion trajectory. We further prove that precise dual-comb spectroscopy with an acquisition time as short as 0.6 $\mu$s is feasible using these solitons, although the temporal motion limits the dynamic range. Besides revealing soliton interactions with different group velocities, our work propels the realization of photonic integrated dual-comb spectrometers with high passive coherence.

Self-organization of temporal modes in mode-locked lasers usually starts from quantum noise. In this process, incoherent spontaneous emission is steered into coherent ultrashort pulses by dissipation and nonlinearity. In this work, we investigated self-organization dynamics in a mode-locked Mamyshev oscillator starting from coherent pulse seeds as opposed to quantum noise. We observed that the coherence of the seed can be remembered or forgotten depending on the initial inverse population. The excessive nonlinearity in the coherence amnesia regime can devastate the seed coherence, causing the oscillator to undergo a chaotic transition lasting hundreds of round trips before regaining coherence. Conversely, the oscillator converges in only a few round trips for the coherence memory regime. A heterodyne technique was developed to record the fast varying optical phase and characterize these two regimes. Dissipative soliton molecules were synthesized from external pulse pair seeds via the coherence memory pathway. In this case, a plateau of the generated pulse spacing independent from seed pulse spacing, i.e., amnesia of the seed spacing, was observed for close spaced seed pulse pairs. Moreover, we show that pulse seeds can be used for laser reconfiguration and pulse pattern control. Our work paves a way to control transient pulse dynamics and steady pulse forms on demand in mode-locked lasers.

Mode-locked fiber lasers provide a versatile playground to study dissipative soliton (DS) dynamics. The corresponding studies not only give insights into soliton dynamics in dissipative systems, but also contribute to femtosecond fiber laser design. Recently, Mamyshev oscillators (MOs), which rely upon a pair of narrow filters with offset passing frequencies, have emerged as a promising candidate for high power, ultrabroad bandwidth pulse generation. To date, only stable mode-locking states in MOs have been reported. Here, we present a comprehensive experimental and numerical investigation of pulsating DSs in an ytterbium MO. By reducing the filter separation down to 4 nm, we observe pulsation in a single pulse state as well as a soliton molecule state. In the single pulse state, the output pulse energy can vary as large as 40 times in our MO. Single-shot spectra measured by the dispersive Fourier transform (DFT) method reveal the spectral bandwidth breathing during pulsation and enables the observation of soliton explosion in a pulsation state. In addition, pulsation with a period lasting 9 round trips and even a chaotic pulsation state are also observed. Numerical simulations based on a lumped model qualitatively agree with our observation. Our results enrich DS dynamics in MOs and show the impact of filter separation on the stability of MOs.

Period-doubling bifurcation is a universal dynamic of nonlinear systems, which has been extensively investigated in laser systems with a single transverse mode. This study presents an experimental observation and theoretical investigation of the period-doubling bifurcation in spatiotemporal mode-locked (STML) multimode fiber lasers. In the period-doubling state, it is observed that the pulse train modulation varies with the transverse-mode, and the output beam profile fluctuates rapidly and periodically. The numerical simulations conducted in this study are in good agreement with the experimental observations. Furthermore, a simple iterative model is proposed by considering the mode-dependent saturable absorption effect, and the experimental results can be qualitatively interpreted by this model. Based on these results, spatiotemporal saturable absorption is believed to be the key factor for the unique spatiotemporal characteristic of period-doubling bifurcation in multimode lasers. This study contributes to the understanding of the complex spatiotemporal dynamics in STML multimode lasers and to the discovery of novel dynamics in high-dimensional nonlinear systems., Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures

Dissipative nonlinear wave dynamics have been investigated extensively in mode-locked lasers with single transverse-mode, whereas there are few studies related to three-dimensional nonlinear dynamics within lasers. Recently, spatiotemporal mode-locking (STML) was proposed in lasers with small modal (i.e., transverse-mode) dispersion, which has been considered to be critical for achieving STML in those cavities because the small dispersion can be easily balanced. Here, we demonstrate that STML can also be achieved in multimode lasers with much larger modal dispersion, where we find that the intracavity saturable absorber plays an important role for counteracting the large modal dispersion. Furthermore, we observe a new STML phenomenon of passive nonlinear auto-selection of single-mode mode-locking, resulting from the interaction between spatiotemporal saturable absorption and spatial gain competition. Our work significantly broadens the design possibilities for useful STML lasers thus making them much more accessible for applications, and extends the explorable parameter space of the novel dissipative spatiotemporal nonlinear dynamics that can be achieved in these lasers., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures for the main manuscript

The relationship between carrier envelope phase (CEP) slip of cavity soliton (CS) and pump phase detuning is derived analytically and numerically. To preserve the stability of CS, CEP slip always equals to the pump phase detuning. When CEP slip fails to follow the pump phase detuning, CS becomes unstable. The locking between CEP slip and pump phase detuning results in a scaling law for CS., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures

We introduce a simple approach to fabricate aligned carbon nanotube (ACNT) device for broadband polarization control in fiber laser systems. The ACNT device was fabricated by pulling from as-fabricated vertically-aligned carbon nanotube arrays. Their anisotropic property is confirmed with optical and scanning electron microscopy, and with polarized Raman and absorption spectroscopy. The device was then integrated into fiber laser systems (at two technologically important wavelengths of 1 and 1.5 um) for polarization control. We obtained a linearly-polarized light output with the maximum extinction ratio of ~12 dB. The output polarization direction could be fully controlled by the ACNT alignment direction in both lasers. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that ACNT device is applied to polarization control in laser systems. Our results exhibit that the ACNT device is a simple, low-cost, and broadband polarizer to control laser polarization dynamics, for various photonic applications (such as material processing, polarization diversity detection in communications), where the linear polarization control is necessary., Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures