Real-time collision dynamics of vector solitons in a fiber laser

作     者：Kangjun Zhao Chenxin Gao Xiaosheng Xiao Changxi Yang 

作者机构：State Key Laboratory of Precision Measurement Technology and InstrumentsDepartment of Precision InstrumentsTsinghua UniversityBeijing 100084China State Key Laboratory of Information Photonics and Optical CommunicationsBeijing University of Posts and TelecommunicationsBeijing 100876China 

出 版 物：《Photonics Research》 (光子学研究（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2021年第9卷第3期

页      面：289-298页

核心收录：

学科分类：080901[工学-物理电子学] 0809[工学-电子科学与技术（可授工学、理学学位）] 08[工学] 080401[工学-精密仪器及机械] 0804[工学-仪器科学与技术] 0803[工学-光学工程] 

基　　金：National Natural Science Foundation of China(51527901  61975090) 

主　　题：fiber polarization solitons 

摘      要：Particle-like structures of solitons, as a result of the balance between dispersion and nonlinearity, enable remarkable elastic and inelastic soliton collisions in many fields. Despite the experimental observation of temporal vector-soliton collisions in birefringent fibers, collision dynamics of vector solitons in fiber lasers have not been revealed before, to the best of our knowledge. Here, the real-time spectral evolutions of vector solitons during collisions in a dual-comb fiber laser, which generates vector solitons with slightly different repetition rates, are captured by a time-stretch dispersive Fourier transform technique. We record the whole process of vector-soliton collisions, including the formation of weak pulses induced by cross-polarization coupling, opposite central wavelength shifts of both vector solitons, distinct intensity redistribution and dissipative energy, and gradual recovery to initial states. Furthermore, extreme collisions with strong four-wave mixing sidebands are observed by virtue of coherent coupling between the orthogonal polarization components of vector solitons. Numerical simulations match well with the experimental observations. The experimental and numerical evidences of vector-soliton collision dynamics could give insight into the understanding of nonlinear dynamics in fiber lasers and other physical systems, as well as the improvement of laser performance for application in dual-comb spectroscopy.