Controlled Generation of Bright or Dark Solitons in a Fiber Laser by Intracavity Nonlinear Absorber

Abstract

We numerically found that an intra-cavity nonlinear absorber (saturable absorber or reversed saturable absorber) plays a crucial role on the formation of dissipative bright or dark solitons in a fiber laser. The operation of an all-normal-dispersion fiber laser could evolve from a bright-soliton emission state to a black-soliton emission state, purely by changing the intracavity nonlinear absorber from a saturable absorber to an anti-saturable absorber. Our simulation results are well supported by the experimental observations. The result suggests a new way on controlling the dissipative soliton operation of lasers and deepens our understanding on the properties of dissipative solitons.

Recent progress of study on optical solitons in fiber lasers

“…140 In addition of the above-mentioned theoretical studies, there are numerical studies on the dark solitons in optical fibers 141-143 and fiber lasers. [144][145][146] However, experimental observation of dark solitons in optical fibers and fiber lasers are still challenging. In optical fibers, dark solitons were first experimentally observed by utilizing specially shaped antisymmetric input pulses at a wavelength of $617 nm in 1988.…”