Integrated Nonlinear Topological Photonics

Microresonator frequency combs have revolutionized precision metrology, spectroscopy, and optical communication. Yet, nearly all existing platforms rely on single-ring resonators, where nonlinear dynamics are governed by a single timescale—set by one free spectral range determined by the geometry of the resonator. This inherently restricts control over optical synchronization, frequency-phase matching, and the existence of solitons. In contrast, topological photonic lattices provide a new synthetic dimension of control: multiple coupled resonators create multi-timescale interactions that reshape how nonlinear light evolves on a chip.

We overcome these challenges by combining microresonator frequency combs with topological photonics to uncover new regimes of nonlinear light generation, multi-timescale synchronization, and new mechanisms of frequency–phase matching. Moreover, our theoretical work predicts exotic solitonic states that go beyond conventional topological models. In this talk, I will present our ongoing work on a new theoretical framework that accuratly predicts the ultrabroad-band realization of more than 100 artificial gauge fields on Integer Quantum Hall topological frequency combs, which solves the long standing short-bandwidth bottleneck in topological photonics. These results show that topological photonics offers advantages beyond topological protection and establishes a new design principle in nonlinear integrated photonics.