Frequency comb generation beyond the Lugiato-Lefever equation: multi-stability and super cavity solitons

The generation of optical frequency combs in microresonators is considered without resorting to the mean-field approximation. New dynamical regimes are found to appear for high intracavity power that cannot be modeled using the Lugiato-Lefever equation. Using the Ikeda map, we show the existence of multi-valued stationary states and analyze their stability. Period doubled patterns are considered, and a novel type of super cavity soliton associated with the multi-stable states is predicted. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America