Xu Shutao, Viry Arnaud, Sander Michelle Y
Opt Express. 2024 Oct 7;32(21):37073-37084. doi: 10.1364/OE.534590.
Soliton molecules, or also known as optical bound states, are the most representative example of solitons' particle nature and have given birth to diverse light-matter analogies. Despite detailed research on regular bound states, the soliton molecule synthesis of dissimilar pulses has rarely been reported. Here, soliton molecules formed by dissimilar dissipative solitons are demonstrated in a single-mode mode-locked fiber laser, with an in-depth analysis of their evolution dynamics. This novel bound state features pulse trapping between two ultrafast vector pulses with distinct pulse properties including energy, duration, and chirp, leading to unique temporal and spectral profiles. This laser provides an optimal platform for studying complex interactions between different types of dissipative solitons. The findings here can provide new degrees of freedom for the generation of optical soliton molecules and can fuel applications in optical information processing, metrology, and spectroscopy.
孤子分子，也被称为光学束缚态，是孤子粒子特性最具代表性的例子，并催生了多种光与物质的类比。尽管对规则束缚态进行了详细研究，但不同脉冲的孤子分子合成却鲜有报道。在此，在单模锁模光纤激光器中展示了由不同耗散孤子形成的孤子分子，并对其演化动力学进行了深入分析。这种新型束缚态的特点是在两个具有不同脉冲特性（包括能量、持续时间和啁啾）的超快矢量脉冲之间实现脉冲俘获，从而产生独特的时间和光谱轮廓。该激光器为研究不同类型耗散孤子之间的复杂相互作用提供了一个理想平台。这里的研究结果可为光学孤子分子的产生提供新的自由度，并推动其在光学信息处理、计量学和光谱学中的应用。
