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  • Review Article
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Dissipative solitons for mode-locked lasers

Nature Photonics volume 6, pages 84–92 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

Dissipative solitons are localized formations of an electromagnetic field that are balanced through an energy exchange with the environment in presence of nonlinearity, dispersion and/or diffraction. Their growing use in the area of passively mode-locked lasers is remarkable: the concept of a dissipative soliton provides an excellent framework for understanding complex pulse dynamics and stimulates innovative cavity designs. Reciprocally, the field of mode-locked lasers serves as an ideal playground for testing the concept of dissipative solitons and revealing their unusual dynamics. This Review provides basic definitions of dissipative solitons, summarizes their implications for the design of high-energy mode-locked fibre laser cavities, highlights striking emerging dynamics such as dissipative soliton molecules, pulsations, explosions and rain, and finally provides an outlook for dissipative light bullets.

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Figure 1: The concept of dissipative solitons.
Figure 2: High-energy dissipative solitons.
Figure 3: Dissipative soliton molecules.
Figure 4: Soliton explosions in a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser.
Figure 5: Soliton rain in a mode-locked fibre laser.
Figure 6: Towards a mode-locked cavity soliton laser.

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Acknowledgements

Ph.G. is supported by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (project ANR-2010-BLANC-0417-01). N.A. acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council (Discovery Project DP0985394).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne, UMR 5209 CNRS, Université de Bourgogne, BP 47870, Dijon Cedex, 21078, France

    Philippe Grelu

  2. Optical Sciences Group, Research School of Physics and Engineering, Institute of Advanced Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia

    Nail Akhmediev

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Correspondence to Philippe Grelu.

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Grelu, P., Akhmediev, N. Dissipative solitons for mode-locked lasers. Nature Photon 6, 84–92 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2011.345

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