Collective effects leading to spatial, temporal or spatiotemporal pattern formation in complex nonlinear systems driven out of equilibrium cannot be described at the single-particle level and are therefore often called emergent phenomena. They are characterized by length scales exceeding the characteristic interaction length and by spontaneous symmetry breaking. Recent advances in integrated photonics have indicated that the study of emergent phenomena is possible in complex coupled nonlinear optical systems. Here we demonstrate that the out-of-equilibrium driving of a strongly coupled pair of photonic integrated Kerr microresonators (‘dimer’)—which, at the ‘single particle’ (that is, individual resonator) level, generate well-understood dissipative Kerr solitons—exhibits emergent nonlinear phenomena. By exploring the dimer phase diagram, we find regimes of soliton hopping, spontaneous symmetry breaking and periodically emerging (in)commensurate dispersive waves. These phenomena are not included in the single-particle description and are related to the parametric frequency conversion between the hybridized supermodes. Moreover, by electrically controlling the supermode hybridization, we achieve wide tunability of spectral interference patterns between the dimer solitons and dispersive waves. Our findings represent a step towards the study of emergent nonlinear phenomena in soliton networks and multimodal lattices.

在失去平衡的复杂非线性系统中导致空间、时间或时空模式形成的集体效应不能在单粒子水平上描述，因此通常被称为涌现现象。它们的特征在于超过特征相互作用长度的长度尺度和自发的对称性破坏。集成光子学的最新进展表明，在复杂耦合的非线性光学系统中研究涌现现象是可能的。在这里，我们证明了一对强耦合光子集成克尔微谐振器（“二聚体”）的非平衡驱动——在“单粒子”（即单个谐振器）水平上，它产生了众所周知的耗散克尔孤子——表现出涌现的非线性现象。通过探索二聚体相图，我们发现孤子跳跃、自发对称破缺和周期性出现（不）相称的色散波的机制。这些现象不包括在单粒子描述中，并且与杂化超模之间的参量频率转换有关。此外，通过电控制超模杂化，我们实现了二聚孤子和色散波之间光谱干涉图案的广泛可调性。我们的发现代表了研究孤子网络和多模态晶格中涌现的非线性现象的一步。这些现象不包括在单粒子描述中，并且与杂化超模之间的参量频率转换有关。此外，通过电控制超模杂化，我们实现了二聚孤子和色散波之间光谱干涉图案的广泛可调性。我们的发现代表了研究孤子网络和多模态晶格中涌现的非线性现象的一步。这些现象不包括在单粒子描述中，并且与杂化超模之间的参量频率转换有关。此外，通过电控制超模杂化，我们实现了二聚孤子和色散波之间光谱干涉图案的广泛可调性。我们的发现代表了研究孤子网络和多模态晶格中涌现的非线性现象的一步。