Manipulation of Gaussian Derivative Pulses and Vector Solitons in an Anomalous-Dispersion Fiber Laser

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the generation and control of Gaussian derivative pulses and vector solitons in an erbium-doped fiber laser, providing insights into their formation mechanisms and potential quantum analogies.

Contribution

It introduces a method to generate switchable Gaussian derivative pulses and vector solitons in a fiber laser, with a theoretical analysis linking classical solitons to Bose-Einstein condensates.

Findings

Generation of positive- and negative-polarity Gaussian monocycle and doublet pulses.

Superposition of bright and dark solitons with controllable properties.

Theoretical simulation aligning with experimental pulse observations.

Abstract

Both positive- and negative-polarity Gaussian monocycle and doublet pulses, for which the pulse shapes are the first and second derivatives of Gaussian functions respectively, are generated in a ring-cavity erbium-doped fiber laser from polarization-locked vector solitons by using passive optical technology. The pulse states are switchable and are found to be the superposition of bright and dark solitons with different widths, amplitudes, time delays, polarizations, and wavelengths. Qualitative analysis of the properties of vector solitons are performed by solving coupled complex Ginzburg-Landau equations. By theoretical representing the envelopes of bright soliton by sech and dark soliton by tanh functions, the incoherent superposition of these two soliton components have simulated the experimental observations, and the underlying mechanisms on the formation for monocycle and doublet pulses are attributed to the polarization locking of bright and dark solitons. The results of tunable optical vectos solitons are compared with atomic solitons in the system of Bose-Einstein condensation. Since governing equations for soliton generation in fiber lasers and Bose-Einstein condensation have many properties in common and thus the simulation and propagation of pulsating waves may open a new route to explore the classical solitary dynamics in nonlinear optics and its quantum analogy in ultralcold fields.