Experimental Evidence for Soliton Explosions

Steven T. Cundiff; J. M. Soto-Crespo; Nail Akhmediev

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.073903

Experimental Evidence for Soliton Explosions

Steven T. Cundiff, J. M. Soto-Crespo, and Nail Akhmediev

Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 073903 – Published 4 February 2002

Abstract

We show, experimentally and numerically, that Ti:sapphire mode-locked lasers can operate in a regime in which they intermittently produce exploding solitons. This happens when the laser operates near a critical point. Explosions happen spontaneously, but external perturbations can trigger them. In stable operation, all explosions have similar features, but are not identical. The characteristics of the explosions depend on the intracavity dispersion.

Received 31 May 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.073903

Authors & Affiliations

Steven T. Cundiff^1,*, J. M. Soto-Crespo², and Nail Akhmediev³

¹JILA, National Institute of Standards and Technology and University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0440
²Instituto de Óptica, C.S.I.C., Serrano 121, 28006 Madrid, Spain
³Australian Photonics CRC, Optical Science Centre, Research School of Physics Science and Engineering, Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia