ABSTRACT
Real-time access to the internal ultrafast dynamics of complex dissipative optical systems opens new explorations of pulse-pulse interactions and dynamic patterns. We present the first direct experimental evidence of the internal motion of a dissipative optical soliton molecule generated in a passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser. We map the internal motion of a soliton pair molecule by using a dispersive Fourier-transform imaging technique, revealing different categories of internal pulsations, including vibrationlike and phase drifting dynamics. Our experiments agree well with numerical predictions and bring insights to the analogy between self-organized states of lights and states of the matter.
ABSTRACT
By examining the concept of energy exchange among the orthogonally polarized components of each of two colliding (Manakov-like) vector solitons it is observed that a maximum or an efficient energy-exchange process is possible only for an appropriate choice of the initial physical parameters (namely, frequency separation, polarizations, time delay, and pulse-width separation between the colliding solitons) for which L(W) (walk-off length) >>L(NL) (nonlinear length). However, in this case only, the amount of energy-exchange can be considerably increased or decreased by appropriately changing the phases of colliding solitons without altering the walk-off length and the initial energy distributions between the soliton components. Moreover we observe that during the collision between two closely placed vector solitons of the practically interesting integrable Manakov model, nonuniform pulse broadening takes place in each of their components. Such an effect has not yet been reported in any (1+1) dimensional integrable soliton systems so far. In addition, the relation between walk-off length, polarization, and pulse width is briefly discussed.
