Comb-Driven Cavity Solitons – A Multidimensional Study in Free-Space Enhancement Cavities

Nonlinear free-space passive resonators, driven by pulse trains from a mode-locked laser, provide a power-scalable, broadband, and flexible platform for the investigation of temporal cavity solitons [1], relevant to the development of novel ultrashort laser frontends. To this end, the comb lines of the mode-locked laser are stabilized to a fixed frequency offset relative to the resonances of a free-space enhancement cavity consisting of a thin nonlinear medium (sapphire) and tailored multilayer mirrors (Fig. 1a).