Observation of multi-soliton asynchronous buildup dynamics in all-PM mode-locked lasers

TL;DR

This paper experimentally observes multi-soliton asynchronous buildup dynamics in all-PM mode-locked fiber lasers, revealing novel features of soliton formation, propagation speeds, energy quantization, and background pulse interactions.

Contribution

It reports the first experimental observation of asynchronous multi-soliton buildup dynamics and their unique properties in all-polarization-maintaining fiber lasers.

Findings

Solitons are produced asynchronously during buildup.

Different solitons have varying energies at metastable state.

Intra-cavity energy shows quantization during buildup.

Abstract

Ultrafast transient phenomena are the most important research field in nonlinear systems, and the mode-locking fiber laser provides an excellent research platform for ultrafast transient phenomena. We report on the experimental observation of multi-soliton asynchronous buildup dynamics in all-polarization-maintaining mode-locked fiber laser. The build-up dynamics display several novel features. The different solitons in multi-soliton generation are produced asynchronously instead of simultaneously. Solitons generated at different time have different propagation speeds at metastable state and same speeds at stable state, indicating that different solitons have different energy at metastable state. The intra-cavity energy exhibits quantization property with respect to the build-up process. A proportion of background pulse vanished with respect to the birth of new pulse, which shows the jungle law in fiber laser system. The buildup dynamics may benefit the research of ultrafast pulse generation, interaction, regulation, energy improvement, and stability improvement.