Self-healing dynamically controllable micro-comb

Micro-resonator-based frequency combs, or micro-combs, have gained considerable interest in recent years due to their many potential applications such as high-speed communication systems, spectroscopy and ultrafast optical clocks [1]. Most micro-combs systems are based on laser pumped optical parametric oscillation and are typically non-self-starting, requiring a well-defined warm-up strategy involving smart control [2]. An alternative approach to micro-combs is represented by the Filter-Driven Four-Wave Mixing (FD-FWM) laser [3-5], based on a nonlinear micro-resonator nested in a main amplifying fibre cavity. Although this system has demonstrated self-starting regimes, stable operation typically imposes a strict relation between the minimum free-spectral range (FSR) of the main-cavity and the Q-factor of the micro-resonator. The use of longer main-cavity fibre lengths (highly desirable for several positive features, such as a larger gain) results in unrecoverable unstable regimes, i.e. in super-mode instability, which arises from the existence of many oscillating main-cavity modes within each micro-resonator resonance.