ABSTRACT

Optical solitons have attracted considerable attention in research and practical applications on not only their generation techniques but also their remarkable dynamics. Understanding the dynamics of solotonic waves are of much significance for soliton applications in communications and signal processing systems. Therefore, extensive studies on soliton interactions have been conducted. For practical dissipative systems such as mode-locked fiber lasers, the interaction between solitons can be theoretically described by the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation (CGLE) instead of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation, which is valid only in conservative systems. Hence, the interaction states of solitons based on CGLE have attracted considerable attention in theoretical study. Malomed [1] analyzes the interaction of slightly overlapping CGLE solitons and was the first to predict the formation of effectively stable dual-and multipulse bound states of solitons [1,2]. Then Akhmediev and Ankiewicz numerically investigated the interaction of CGLE solitons by using the two-dimensional phase space approach [3]. They also found a stable solution of dual and multipulse bound solitons with a π/2 phase difference between them. These theoretical results opened a new research frontier on the states and dynamics of short pulses in mode-locked fiber lasers.