Temporal tweezing of light: trapping and manipulation of temporal cavity solitons

Optical tweezers use laser light to trap and move microscopic particles in space. Here we demonstrate a similar control over ultrashort light pulses, but in time. Our experiment involves temporal cavity solitons that are stored in a passive loop of optical fiber pumped by a continuous-wave "holding" laser beam. The cavity solitons are trapped into specific time slots through a phase-modulation of the holding beam, and moved around in time by manipulating the phase profile. We report both continuous and discrete manipulations of the temporal positions of picosecond light pulses, with the ability to simultaneously and independently control several pulses within a train. We also study the transient drifting dynamics and show complete agreement with theoretical predictions. Our study demonstrates how the unique particle-like characteristics of cavity solitons can be leveraged to achieve unprecedented control over light. These results could have significant ramifications for optical information processing.