Real-time spectral interferometry probes the internal dynamics of femtosecond soliton molecules

Herink, Georg; Kurtz, Felix; Jalali, Bahram; Solli, Daniel R.; Ropers, Claus

doi:10.1126/science.aal5326

Cited by 561 publications

(365 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…More optical measurement methods will be developed in order to provide worthy means for detailed recording of the properties of multisoliton ensembles such as phase information. Very recent breakthrough experiments on time-stretch dispersive Fourier transform techniques enable a real-time observation of build-up and evolution process of soliton molecules [9,10], which will be applied and tested in more systems and situations. In addition, some trials on long-distance transmission of soliton molecules and coding in multiple solitons for example by means of manipulation on polarization states may promote related developments and pave the way towards real applications.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such soliton molecules are of vital significance to understand and explore. The reason is twofold: on the one hand, they are the most frequently observed in fibre lasers as an outcome of the complex nonlinear dynamics, which help us to retrieve the underlying dissipation nature; on the other hand, they are particularly useful for developing larger telecommunication capacity in optical fibre transmission lines [6][7][8] and advancing ultrafast characterization approaches such as real-time spectroscopy [9,10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Soliton Molecules and Multisoliton States in Ultrafast Fibre Lasers: Intrinsic Complexes in Dissipative Systems

et al. 2018

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Featured Application: High-capacity telecommunication, advanced time-resolved spectroscopy, self-organization and chaos in dissipative systems. Abstract:Benefiting from ultrafast temporal resolution, broadband spectral bandwidth, as well as high peak power, passively mode-locked fibre lasers have attracted growing interest and exhibited great potential from fundamental sciences to industrial and military applications. As a nonlinear system containing complex interactions from gain, loss, nonlinearity, dispersion, etc., ultrafast fibre lasers deliver not only conventional single soliton but also soliton bunching with different types. In analogy to molecules consisting of several atoms in chemistry, soliton molecules (in other words, bound solitons) in fibre lasers are of vital importance for in-depth understanding of the nonlinear interaction mechanism and further exploration for high-capacity fibre-optic communications. In this Review, we summarize the state-of-the-art advances on soliton molecules in ultrafast fibre lasers. A variety of soliton molecules with different numbers of soliton, phase-differences and pulse separations were experimentally observed owing to the flexibility of parameters such as mode-locking techniques and dispersion control. Numerical simulations clearly unravel how different nonlinear interactions contribute to formation of soliton molecules. Analysis of the stability and the underlying physical mechanisms of bound solitons bring important insights to this field. For a complete view of nonlinear optical phenomena in fibre lasers, other dissipative states such as vibrating soliton pairs, soliton rains, rogue waves and coexisting dissipative solitons are also discussed. With development of advanced real-time detection techniques, the internal motion of different pulsing states is anticipated to be characterized, rendering fibre lasers a versatile platform for nonlinear complex dynamics and various practical applications.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soliton Molecules and Multisoliton States in Ultrafast Fibre Lasers: Intrinsic Complexes in Dissipative Systems

et al. 2018

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“…For example, the time-lens method 13 can provide the required femtosecond-resolution, but has a limited record length set by the pump pulse. Also, while the relative position of closely spaced soliton complexes 11 can be inferred over time from their composite dispersive Fourier transform (DFT) spectra 14 , Fourier inversion requires the constituent solitons to have similar waveforms which restricts the generality of the technique. Efforts that combine these two methods were also reported very recently 15,16 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Imaging soliton dynamics in optical microcavities

Yang

Vahala

2018

Nat Commun

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Solitons are self-sustained wavepackets that occur in many physical systems. Their recent demonstration in optical microresonators has provided a new platform for the study of nonlinear optical physics with practical implications for miniaturization of time standards, spectroscopy tools, and frequency metrology systems. However, despite its importance to the understanding of soliton physics, as well as development of new applications, imaging the rich dynamical behavior of solitons in microcavities has not been possible. These phenomena require a difficult combination of high-temporal-resolution and long-record-length in order to capture the evolving trajectories of closely spaced microcavity solitons. Here, an imaging method is demonstrated that visualizes soliton motion with sub-picosecond resolution over arbitrary time spans. A wide range of complex soliton transient behavior are characterized in the temporal or spectral domain, including soliton formation, collisions, spectral breathing, and soliton decay. This method can serve as a visualization tool for developing new soliton applications and understanding complex soliton physics in microcavities.

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“…Apparently, a real-time high-resolution spectro-temporal analyzer operating in a continuous mode is yet to be demonstrated for better understanding the nonlinear optical physics as well as optimizing the laser performances. Photonic time-stretch through dispersive chirp has recently been demonstrated as a highthroughput single-shot spectral analyzer [31][32][33] and has greatly enriched researches on nonlinear physics, e.g., supercontinuum generation [34], optical rogue wave observation [24,35,36], soliton explosion [37,38], as well as mode-locking and soliton-molecule formation [39,40]. Despite its superior performance in fs-ps regime, typically for transformlimited short pulses, time-stretch spectroscope (TSS) is inadequate for CW/quasi-CW optical signal, see Appendix 1.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unveiling multi-scale laser dynamics through time-stretch and time-lens spectroscopies

Wei¹,

Li²,

Yu³

et al. 2017

Opt. Express

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Abstract:Spectro-temporal studies on the nonlinear physics of complex laser dynamics are essential in approaching its ultimate performance as well as understanding interdisciplinary problems. Unfortunately, it has long been limited by the insufficient spectro-temporal resolving power of conventional temporal and spectral analyzers, particularly when an indefinite optical signal ensemble contains polychromatic mixtures of continuous-wave (CW) and short pulse. In this work, we propose a real-time optical spectro-temporal analyzer (ROSTA) with three synchronized processing channels (i.e., multi-core) for single-shot studies on laser dynamics. It simultaneously provides temporal resolutions of ~70 ps in the time domain and 10's ns (or 10's MHz frame rate) in the spectral domain, as well as a high spectral resolution for multiscale optical inputs, i.e., ranging from CW to fs pulses. Its nontrivial record length of up to 6.4 ms enables continuous observations of non-repetitive optical events over an extensive time period -equivalent to a propagation distance of ~1900 km. To showcase its practical applications, ROSTA is applied to visualize the onset of passive modelocking of a fiber laser, and interesting phenomena, i.e., evolution from quasi-CW noise burst to strong shock, transition from fluctuation to mode-locking, and coexistence of CW and mode-locked pulses, have been spectro-temporally observed in a single-shot manner for the first time. It is anticipated that ROSTA will be a powerful technology for spectro-temporal optical diagnosis in different areas involving polychromatic transients. 1335-1337 (2008). 11. C. Xu and F. W. Wise, "Recent advances in fibre lasers for nonlinear microscopy," Nat. Photonics 7(11), 875-882 (2013). 12. N. G. Horton, K. Wang, D. Kobat, C. G. Clark, F. W. Wise, C. B. Schaffer, and C. Xu, "In vivo three-photon microscopy of subcortical structures within an intact mouse brain," Nat. Photonics 7(3), 205-209 (2013). 13. C. W. Freudiger, W. Yang, G. R. Holtom, N. Peyghambarian, X. S. Xie, and K. Q. Kieu, "Stimulated Raman scattering microscopy with a robust fibre laser source," Nat. Photonics 8(2), 153-159 (2014). 14. J. M. Dudley, G. Genty, and S. Coen, "Supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fiber," Rev. Mod. Phys.78(4), 1135-1184 (2006). 15. F. Leo, S. Coen, P. Kockaertl, S.-P. Gorza, P. Emplit, and M. Haelterman, "Temporal cavity solitons in onedimensional kerr media as bits in an all-optical buffer," Nat. Photonics 4(7), 471-476 (2010). 16. J. K. Jang, M. Erkintalo, S. G. Murdoch, and S. Coen, "Ultraweak long-range interactions of solitons observed over astronomical distances," Nat.

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Real-time spectral interferometry probes the internal dynamics of femtosecond soliton molecules

Cited by 561 publications

References 42 publications

Soliton Molecules and Multisoliton States in Ultrafast Fibre Lasers: Intrinsic Complexes in Dissipative Systems

Soliton Molecules and Multisoliton States in Ultrafast Fibre Lasers: Intrinsic Complexes in Dissipative Systems

Imaging soliton dynamics in optical microcavities

Unveiling multi-scale laser dynamics through time-stretch and time-lens spectroscopies

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