Mechanically Actuated Kerr Soliton Microcombs

Abstract Mode‐locked ultrashort pulse sources with a repetition rate of up to several tens of gigahertz greatly facilitate versatile photonic applications such as frequency synthesis, metrology, radar, and optical communications. Dissipative Kerr soliton microcombs provide an attractive solution as a broadband, high‐repetition‐rate compact laser system in this context. However, its operation usually requires sophisticated pump laser control to initiate and stabilize the soliton microcombs, particularly in millimeter‐sized ultrahigh‐Q whispering‐gallery resonators. Here, a mechanically actuated soliton microcomb oscillator is realized with a microwave repetition rate of 15 GHz. This enables direct initiation, subsequent long‐term stabilization, and fine tuning of soliton combs without pump laser tunability that is generally required for soliton microcomb operation. The prospects for using this method with a wide range of applications are revealed that will benefit from mechanical soliton actuation such as optical clocks, spectral extension, and dual‐comb spectroscopy.