History and Ultrahigh Bandwidth Applications of Optical Microcombs

Optical microcombs represent a new paradigm for generating laser frequency combs based on compact chip-scale devices, which have underpinned many modern technological advances for both fundamental science and industrial applications. Along with the surge in activity related to optical micro-combs in the past decade, their applications have also experienced rapid progress ‒ not only in traditional fields such as frequency synthesis, signal processing, and optical communications, but also in new interdisciplinary fields spanning the frontiers of light detection and ranging (LiDAR), astronomical detection, neuromorphic computing, and quantum optics. This paper reviews the applications of optical microcombs. First, an overview of the devices and methods for generating optical microcombs is provided, which are categorized into material platforms, device architectures, soliton classes, and driving mechanisms. Second, the broad applications of optical microcombs are systematically reviewed, which are categorized into microwave photonics, optical communications, precision measurements, neuromorphic computing, and quantum optics. Finally, the current challenges and future perspectives are discussed.