Parallel optical-soliton reactors based on optoacoustically mode-locked fiber laser

Abstract

We report the use of an optoacoustically mode-locked fiber laser to create hundreds of temporal trapping potentials in parallel, within each of which multiple optical solitons can be isolated and manipulated to interact using a variety of control methods. Using these parallel “reactors”, we achieved on-demand synthesis and dissociation of soliton molecules both globally and individually and unfolded a novel panorama of stochastic soliton dynamics. Moreover, statistical analysis based on the massive dynamic events has revealed matter-light analogy on a collective level, suggesting that the soliton molecule dynamics follow classical theory of chemical kinetics.