Programmable Kerr Combs in Laser Cavity Soliton Mode-Locked Laser

We numerically study programmable Kerr comb mode-locked fiber laser based on a nested cavities architecture. The nested architecture includes an optical resonator as well as a photonic device used as programmable delay-line, which allows for controlling the pulse repetition rate of a passively mode-locked laser over a frequency range covering the GHz-THz interval. In the proposed approach, the pulse repetition rate is adjusted based on a temporal interleaving process, obtained after propagation through the programmable delay-line structure. Our numerical study demonstrates how a programmable delay-line can be leveraged to obtain a highly-tunable Kerr-comb laser via harmonic mode-locking, featuring the formation of energy efficient yet reconfigurable laser cavity soliton pulses. In particular, basic rules are outlined to facilitate the experimental implementation of such a mode-locked laser. The proposed laser architecture is expected to thus provide enhanced versatility for compact and tunable frequency comb generation.