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Adiabatic and deterministic routes to soliton combs in non-Hermitian Kerr cavities

Salim B. Ivars1,*, David Artigas1,2, Carlos Mas Arabí3, and Carles Milián3

  • *Contact author: salim.benadouda@icfo.eu
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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 013026 – Published 13 January, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/5zlv-2p96

Abstract

We present a cardinal solution for the long-standing and fundamental problem associated with the adiabatic, reversible, and controlled excitation of both dark and bright solitons in Kerr microresonators with normal group-velocity dispersion. Our findings stem from the inclusion of a localized non-Hermitian potential, which we use to drastically reshape the characteristic collapsed snaking structure associated with such solitons. Consequently, we demonstrate a snaking-free bifurcation landscape where solitons of all possible widths are continuously connected via the dynamic change of the cavity detuning, and hence dissipative localized states of unprecedentedly high pump-to-comb conversion efficiencies can be excited in an adiabatic, deterministic, and reversible fashion. Our fundamental discovery has practical implications of paramount importance for frequency comb generation in all-normal dispersion cavities, which are key to comb generation in most spectral regions away from the telecom bands.

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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 013026– Published 13 January, 2026
  • Received 2 July 2025
  • Accepted 11 December 2025
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