Observation of Coexisting Dissipative Solitons in a Mode-Locked Fiber Laser

Chengying Bao, Wonkeun Chang, Changxi Yang, Nail Akhmediev, and Steven T. Cundiff

Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 253903 – Published 18 December 2015

Abstract

We show, experimentally and numerically, that a mode-locked fiber laser can operate in a regime where two dissipative soliton solutions coexist and the laser will periodically switch between the solutions. The two dissipative solitons differ in their pulse energy and spectrum. The switching can be controlled by an external perturbation and triggered even when switching does not occur spontaneously. Numerical simulations unveil the importance of the double-minima loss spectrum and nonlinear gain to the switching dynamics.

Received 30 April 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.253903

Authors & Affiliations

Chengying Bao^1,2, Wonkeun Chang³, Changxi Yang², Nail Akhmediev³, and Steven T. Cundiff^1,4,*

¹JILA, University of Colorado & National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0440, USA
²State Key Laboratory of Precision Measurement Technology and Instruments, Department of Precision Instruments, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
³Optical Sciences Group, Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
⁴Physics Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA

^*cundiff@umich.edu

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Issue

Vol. 115, Iss. 25 — 18 December 2015

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