Symmetry-breaking-induced dynamics in a nonlinear microresonator

Optically induced symmetry-breaking plays a key role in nonlinear photonics. Recently, the experiment has successfully observed the Kerr-nonlinearity-induced chiral symmetry breaking in a single ultrahigh-Q whispering-gallery microresonator. Here, we show this symmetry-breaking can generate exotic dynamics between two counter-propagating modes. In particular, we predict two kinds of self-trappings, in which the corresponding relative phase oscillates around pi or runs without bound although they have both the nonzero mean energy imbalance. Finally, we also clarify the impacts of the mode loss, finding a dynamical transition from self-trappings to an anharmonic oscillation. The presented scheme offers a new route to understanding the nonlinear dynamics and wave chaos in the microresonator. (C) 2019 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement