In many disciplines, states that emerge in open systems far from equilibrium are determined by a few global parameters^1,2. These states can often mimic thermodynamic equilibrium, a classic example being the oscillation threshold of a laser³ that resembles a phase transition in condensed matter. However, many classes of states cannot form spontaneously in dissipative systems, and this is the case for cavity solitons² that generally need to be induced by external perturbations, as in the case of optical memories^4,5. In the past decade, these highly localized states have enabled important advancements in microresonator-based optical frequency combs^6,7. However, the very advantages that make cavity solitons attractive for memories—their inability to form spontaneously from noise—have created fundamental challenges. As sources, microcombs require spontaneous and reliable initiation into a desired state that is intrinsically robust^{8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20}. Here we show that the slow non-linearities of a free-running microresonator-filtered fibre laser²¹ can transform temporal cavity solitons into the system’s dominant attractor. This phenomenon leads to reliable self-starting oscillation of microcavity solitons that are naturally robust to perturbations, recovering spontaneously even after complete disruption. These emerge repeatably and controllably into a large region of the global system parameter space in which specific states, highly stable over long timeframes, can be achieved.

在许多学科中，在远离平衡的开放系统中出现的状态由几个全局参数^1,2决定。这些状态通常可以模拟热力学平衡，一个典型的例子是激光³的振荡阈值，类似于凝聚态物质中的相变。然而，许多类别的状态不能在耗散系统中自发形成，这就是通常需要由外部扰动引起的空腔孤子^{2的情况，如光存储器4,5}的情况。在过去的十年中，这些高度本地化的状态使基于微谐振器的光学频率梳^{6,7取得了重要进展}. 然而，使空腔孤子对记忆具有吸引力的优势——它们无法从噪声中自发形成——带来了根本性的挑战。作为来源，微梳需要自发且可靠地启动到内在稳健的所需状态^{8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20}。在这里，我们展示了自由运行的微谐振器过滤光纤激光器的缓慢非线性²¹可以将时间腔孤子转化为系统的主要吸引子。这种现象导致了微腔孤子的可靠自启动振荡，这些孤子对扰动具有自然鲁棒性，即使在完全中断后也会自发恢复。这些可重复且可控地出现在全局系统参数空间的大区域中，在该区域中可以实现在长时间范围内高度稳定的特定状态。