Quantum-interference metrology of dissipative Kerr solitons.

Hong-Ou-Mandel quantum-interference metrology retrieves near transform-limited femtosecond pulse durations of dissipative Kerr solitons in optical microresonators, accurate after 25 kilometers of standard fiber.

• Why it matters: Conventional ultrafast diagnostics require amplification and dispersion compensation, which can distort low-energy, broad-band soliton waveforms, limiting faithful characterization of intrinsic temporal structure.
• What they did: The soliton stream is attenuated to the single-photon level and fourth-order interference is measured to directly retrieve pulse durations without amplification or dispersion management.
• The result: The same interferogram yields temporal separations in multisoliton states by mapping intersoliton delays to additional interference dips, enabling subpicosecond characterization of intracavity structure.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.