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Dichromatic coherent pumping of optical microresonators possessing broadband Kerr nonlinearity reveals a rich variety of nonlinear and critical phenomena, including time‐translation symmetry breaking, multistability, and chaos. This pumping scheme has garnered significant interest owing to its practical applications arising from optical‐to‐microwave frequency stability transfer and frequency‐division phase noise reduction. In this work, a generalized analytical model is developed to elucidate the dynamics of dissipative Kerr cavity solitons as particles in dual‐frequency pumped Kerr cavities. The model offers quantitative and intuitive insight into the behavior of the system both within and beyond the locking range wherein solitons synchronize to the two driving lasers. It also predicts new phenomena and expounds hitherto unexplained experimental observations covering bistability, hysteresis, and Arnold tongues. The unified framework simultaneously delineates the parameter space for the existence of dissipative discrete time crystals recently reported in dually pumped optical solitons. Bridging a fundamental study with practical applications, this work offers valuable understanding of two‐point injection‐locked microcombs for realizing chip‐scale optical clocks and superior microwave photonic oscillators. 

Optical microresonators possessing Kerr-type nonlinearity have emerged over the past decade as reliable and versatile sources of optical frequency combs, with varied applications including in the generation of low-phasenoise radio frequency (RF) signals, small-footprint precision timekeeping, and LiDAR. One of the key parameters affecting Kerr microcomb generation in different wavelength ranges is cavity modal dispersion. Dispersion effects such as avoided mode crossings (AMCs) have been shown to greatly limit mode-locked microcomb generation, especially when pumping in close proximity to such disruptions. We present numerical modeling and experimental evidence demonstrating that using an auxiliary laser pump can suppress the detrimental impact of near-pump AMCs. We also report, for the first time to our knowledge, the possibility of the breaking of characteristic soliton steps into two stable branches corresponding to different stable pulse trains arising from the interplay of dichromatic pumping and AMCs. These findings bear significance, particularly for the generation of frequency combs in larger resonators or at smaller wavelengths, such as the visible range, where the cavities become overmoded. 

In this article, we review the proposed experiments for the Deep Space Quantum Link (DSQL) mission concept aiming to probe gravitational effects on quantum optical systems. Quantum theory and general relativity are the two most successful frameworks we have to describe the universe. These theories have been validated through experimental confirmations in their domains of application— the macroscopic domain for relativity, and the microscopic domain for quantum theory. To date, laboratory experiments conducted in a regime where both theories manifest measurable effects on photons are limited. Satellite platforms enable the transmission of quantum states of light between different inertial frames and over distances impossible to emulate in the laboratory. The DSQL concept proposes simultaneous tests of quantum mechanics and general relativity enabled by quantum optical links to one or more spacecrafts.