Defect-engineered ring laser harmonic frequency combs

A monochromatic wave that circulates in a nonlinear and dispersive optical cavity can become unstable and form a structured waveform. This phenomenon, known as modulation instability, was encountered in fiber lasers, optically pumped Kerr microresonators and, most recently, in monolithic ring quantum cascade lasers (QCLs). In ring QCLs, the instability led to generation of fundamental frequency combs—optical fields that repeat themselves once per cavity round trip. Here we show that the same instability may also result in self-starting harmonic frequency combs—waveforms that repeat themselves multiple times per round trip, akin to perfect soliton crystals in ring Kerr microresonators. We can tailor the intermode spacing of harmonic frequency combs by placing two minute defects with a well-defined separation between them along the ring waveguide. On-demand excitation of frequency comb states with few powerful modes spaced by hundreds of gigahertz may find their use in future sub-terahertz generators.