Polarization rotation locking of vector solitons in a fiber ring laser

L M Zhao,D Y Tang,X Wu,H Zhang

doi:10.1364/oe.16.010053

Abstract

Polarization rotation of vector solitons in a fiber ring laser was experimentally studied. It was observed that the period of vector soliton polarization rotation could be locked to the cavity roundtrip time or multiple of it. We further show that multiple vector solitons can be formed in a fiber laser, and all the vector solitons have the same group velocity in cavity, however, their instantaneous polarization ellipse orientations could be orthogonal.

Highlights

Due to the fact that single mode fibers support two polarization modes, pulse propagation in single mode fibers can exhibit complicated polarization dynamics, which have been the subject of extensive theoretical and experimental researches
It was observed that the period of vector soliton polarization rotation could be locked to the cavity roundtrip time or multiple of it
We further show that multiple vector solitons can be formed in a fiber laser, and all the vector solitons have the same group velocity in cavity, their instantaneous polarization ellipse orientations could be orthogonal

Summary

Introduction

Due to the fact that single mode fibers support two polarization modes, pulse propagation in single mode fibers can exhibit complicated polarization dynamics, which have been the subject of extensive theoretical and experimental researches. It was recently demonstrated that vector solitons could still be formed in passively mode-locked fiber lasers [5] Both the polarization locked vector solitons (PLVSs) and the group velocity locked vector solitons (GVLVSs) have been obtained [6, 7]. Neither the polarization rotation dynamics of the observed GVLVSs was studied Another obvious difference between light propagation in single mode fibers and in a fiber laser is that light propagation in a laser cavity must satisfy the cavity boundary condition. Different from the formation of multiple scalar solitons, the formed multiple vector solitons could have orthogonal polarization ellipse orientations, an effect that could be traced back to the spatial gain hole burning in the fiber cross section caused by the special polarization evolution of the vector solitons in the fiber laser cavity

Fiber PC

Conclusion