Two-optical-cycle pulses from nanophotonic two-color soliton compression

Abstract

Few- and single-cycle optical pulses and their associated ultra-broadband spectra have been crucial in the progress of ultrafast science and technology. Moreover, multi-color waveforms composed of independently manipulable ultrashort pulses in distinct spectral bands offer unique advantages in pulse synthesis and attosecond science. However, the generation and control of ultrashort pulses has required bulky and expensive optical systems at the tabletop scale and has so far been beyond the reach of integrated photonics. Here, we break these limitations and demonstrate two-optical-cycle pulse compression using quadratic two-color soliton dynamics in lithium niobate nanophotonics. By leveraging dispersion engineering and operation near phase matching, we achieve extreme compression, energy-efficient operation, and strong conversion of pump to the second harmonic. We experimentally demonstrate generation of ∼13 fs pulses at 2 µm using only ∼3 pJ of input energy. We further illustrate how the demonstrated scheme can be readily extended to on-chip single-cycle pulse synthesis with sub-cycle control. Our results provide a path towards realization of single-cycle ultrafast systems in nanophotonic circuits.