Color Symmetry Breaking in a Nonlinear Optical Microresonator

Trinchão LO, Ghosh A, Pal A, Yan H, Bi T, Zhang S, Tomazio NB, Kunst FK, Hill L, Wiederhecker GS, Del'Haye P (2026)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2026

Journal

Laser & Photonics Reviews Wiley-VCH Verlag

DOI: 10.1002/lpor.71644

Abstract

Spontaneous symmetry breaking leads to diverse phenomena across the natural sciences, from the Higgs mechanism in particle physics to superconductors and collective animal behavior. In photonic systems, the symmetry of light states can be broken when two optical fields interact through the Kerr nonlinearity, as shown in early demonstrations with counterpropagating and cross-polarized modes. Here, we report the first observation of color symmetry breaking in an integrated silicon nitride microring, where spontaneous power imbalance arises between optical mode at different wavelengths, mediated by the Kerr effect. The threshold power for this effect is as low as (Formula presented.). By examining the system's homogeneous states, we further demonstrate a Kerr-based nonlinear activation-function generator that produces sigmoid-, quadratic-, and leaky-ReLU-like responses. These findings reveal previously unexplored nonlinear dynamics in dual-pumped Kerr resonators and establish new pathways toward compact, all-optical neuromorphic circuits.

Authors with CRIS profile

Pascal Del'Haye

Involved external institutions

Max-Planck-Institut für die Physik des Lichts (MPL) / Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light DE Germany (DE) Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) / University of Campinas BR Brazil (BR) University of São Paulo / Universidade de São Paulo (USP) BR Brazil (BR)

How to cite

APA:

Trinchão, L.O., Ghosh, A., Pal, A., Yan, H., Bi, T., Zhang, S.,... Del'Haye, P. (2026). Color Symmetry Breaking in a Nonlinear Optical Microresonator. Laser & Photonics Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1002/lpor.71644

MLA:

Trinchão, Luca O., et al. "Color Symmetry Breaking in a Nonlinear Optical Microresonator." Laser & Photonics Reviews (2026).

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