Frequency comb from a microresonator with engineered spectrum

Abstract

We demonstrate that by varying the ratio between the linewidth and dispersion of a whispering gallery mode resonator we are able to control the number N of free spectral ranges separating the first generated comb sidebands from the pump. We observed combs with N=19 and N=1. For the comb with N=1 we have achieved a span of over 200 nm using a 0.4 mm MgF2 resonator with a pump of 50 mW, which is a factor of 10 lower than previously reported.