Dual backgrounds and their stability during $χ^{(2)}$ comb generation in microresonators

Abstract: Light states relevant to the $\chi^{(2)}$ comb generation in optical microresonators possess typically dual backgrounds for coupled first-harmonic (FH) and second-harmonic (SH) envelopes. Stability and/or instability of these backgrounds is crucial for realization of stable $\chi^{(2)}$ combs and also for an efficient SH generation. We explore the properties of the dual backgrounds and their instability for the cases of FH and SH pumping of the resonator. In contrast to the optical parameteric oscillation, the instability is controlled by a 4th-degree characteristic equation for the increment. Coefficients of this equation depend not only on wavenumbers of the perturbations, the pump power, and dispersion parameters, but also on FH-SH group velocity difference (temporal walk-off). Our results include characterization of the regions and conditions of stability for the FH- and SH-pumping cases and different spectral ranges.