Cavity solitons in bidirectional lasers

TL;DR

This paper theoretically demonstrates that bidirectional lasers with asymmetric cavity losses can sustain and control cavity solitons, which are localized light structures that can be written or erased via pulse injection.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of cavity solitons in bidirectional lasers with asymmetric losses and shows their controllability through pulse injection.

Findings

Cavity solitons can exist in bidirectional lasers with different cavity losses.

Bright and dark cavity solitons are complementary in the two fields.

Cavity solitons can be written and erased by injecting pulses into either field.

Abstract

We show theoretically that a broad area bidirectional laser with slightly different cavity losses for the two counterpropagating fields sustains cavity solitons (CSs). These structures are complementary, i.e., there is a bright (dark) CS in the field with more (less) losses. Interestingly, the CSs can be written/erased by injecting suitable pulses in any of the two counterpropagating fields.