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Vectorial dissipative solitons in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with delays

Nature Photonics volume 9, pages 450–455 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

We show that the nonlinear polarization dynamics of a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser placed in an external cavity lead to the emission of temporal dissipative solitons. These are vectorial solitons because they appear as localized pulses in the polarized output, but leave the total intensity constant. When the cavity roundtrip time is much longer than the soliton duration, several independent solitons as well as bound states (molecules) may be hosted in the cavity. All these solitons coexist together and with the background solution. The experimental results are well described by a theoretical model that can be reduced to a single delayed equation for the polarization orientation, which allows the vectorial solitons to be interpreted as polarization kinks. A Floquet analysis is used to confirm the mutual independence of the observed solitons.

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Figure 1: Experimental set-up.
Figure 2: Single DS regime.
Figure 3: Space–time diagrams of different coexisting situations.
Figure 4: Theoretical temporal traces.
Figure 5: Floquet multipliers μ.
Figure 6: Temporal trace using the normalized Stokes representation of the dynamics.

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Acknowledgements

J.J. acknowledges financial support from the Ramón y Cajal fellowship and useful discussions with B. Krauskopf. J.J. and S.B. acknowledge financial support from project RANGER (TEC2012-38864-C03-01). M.G. acknowledges discussions with G. Giacomelli and C. Miniatura. The INLN group acknowledges funding from Région Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur with the “Projet Volet Général 2011: Génération et Détection des Impulsions Ultra Rapides (GEDEPULSE)”, project ANR “OPTIROC” and project ANR – Jeunes Chercheurs “MOLOSSE”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Non Linéaire de Nice, Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis – Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1361 route des lucioles, Valbonne, F-06560, France

    M. Marconi, S. Barland & M. Giudici

  2. Departament de Fisica, Universitat de les Illes Baleares, C/ Valldemossa, km 7.5, Palma de Mallorca, E-07122, Spain

    J. Javaloyes

  3. Institut Mediterrani d'Estudis Avançats, CSIC-UIB, Palma de Mallorca, E-07071, Spain

    S. Balle

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  1. M. Marconi
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Contributions

M.M. performed the experimental characterization under the supervision of M.G. and assisted by S. Barland. M.M., S.B. and M.G. performed the statistical analysis of the experimental data. J.J. developed the theoretical and the numerical analysis and wrote the manuscript together with S.B. and M.G. All the authors participated in the interpretation of the results.

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Correspondence to M. Giudici.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Marconi, M., Javaloyes, J., Barland, S. et al. Vectorial dissipative solitons in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with delays. Nature Photon 9, 450–455 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2015.92

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