Dissipative quadratic soliton mode-locked optical parametric oscillator

Abstract

Femtosecond mode-locked lasers are foundational to ultrafast science, yet their spectral reach remains constrained by the finite emission bandwidth of available gain media. Optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) overcome this constraint but typically require complex synchronous pumping by external femtosecond lasers. Here we demonstrate a fundamentally different approach: passive mode-locking of a continuous-wave-driven, doubly resonant degenerate OPO via the spontaneous formation of femtosecond dissipative quadratic solitons (DQS). We show that phase-matched intracavity cascaded quadratic nonlinearity (PICQN), enabled by negligible pump-signal walk-off in a doubly resonant cavity, generates a non-local effective Kerr nonlinearity (EKN) that governs the cavity dynamics and drives soliton formation. The engineered EKN exceeds the intrinsic material Kerr nonlinearity by more than three orders of magnitude and is continuously tunable in magnitude and sign via pump phase detuning, enabling a paradigm shift from dispersion to nonlinearity engineering for dissipative soliton formation. Comprehensive stability analysis reveals distinct dynamical regimes governed by pumping and cavity conditions, providing a versatile framework for exploring previously understudied quadratic soliton physics. Experimentally, we observe bichromatic femtosecond DQSs at 1572 nm and 786 nm with pulse durations of 336 fs and 447 fs, respectively, peak powers up to 150 W, and a conversion efficiency of 5% under 600 mW continuous-wave pumping. Our work establishes a simple, flexible, and scalable architecture for femtosecond OPOs that bypasses the need for synchronized mode-locked pump lasers. By shifting from traditional dispersion engineering to in-situ nonlinearity engineering, this platform extends the reach of soliton-based technologies and enables dissipative solitons across diverse platforms and spectral regimes.