Eur. Phys. J. D (2017) 71: 196
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2017-80132-8

Regular Article

Existence and switching behavior of bright and dark Kerr solitons in whispering-gallery mode resonators with zero group-velocity dispersion^*

¹ Laboratory of Condensed Matter, Electronics and Signal Processing, Department of Physics, University of Dschang, P.O. Box 67, Dschang, Cameroon
² Laboratory of Modelling and Simulation in Engineering, Biomimetics and Prototypes, Department of Physics, University of Yaoundé I, P.O. Box 812, Yaoundé, Cameroon
³ African Center of Excellence for Information and Communication Technologies (CETIC), Polytechnic School of Yaoundé, P.O. Box 8390, Yaoundé, Cameroon
⁴ Centre de Physique Théorique, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau, France
⁵ Optics Department, FEMTO-ST Institute, CNRS & Univ. Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, 15B Avenue des Montboucons, 25030 Besançon Cedex, France
⁶ GeorgiaTech-CNRS Joint International Laboratory [UMI 2958], Atlanta Mirror Lab, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 777 Atlantic Dr NW, Atlanta, GA 30332-0250, USA

^a e-mail: yanne.chembo@femto-st.fr

Received: 27 February 2017
Received in final form: 10 May 2017
Published online: 19 July 2017

Abstract

We use the generalized Lugiato-Lefever model to investigate the phenomenon of Kerr optical frequency comb generation when group-velocity dispersion is null. In that case, the first dispersion term that plays a leading role is third-order dispersion. We show that this term is sufficient to allow for the existence of both bright and dark solitons. We identify the areas in the parameter space where both kind of solitons can be excited inside the resonator. We also unveil a phenomenon of hysteretic switching between these two types of solitons when the power of the pump laser is cyclically varied.