ABSTRACT
The principle of the soliton has always been an important guideline for the development of short and ultrashort pulse sources. However, the concept of passively mode-locked laser sources relies on the ability of the laser modes to self-organize in a highly competitive environment, excited and disturbed by noise, where gain and losses readily impact the development and the survival of any dynamical regime. For these reasons, it has become crystal clear that the dissipative soliton paradigm was the most adapted soliton concept to the case of mode locked lasers. The chapter illustrates the manifestation of partially mode-locked regimes found within fiber lasers when operated in the vicinity of conventional mode-locked pulse dynamics. It presents the experimental aspects and interpretations of soliton rain dynamics. The chapter focuses on the subject of extended chaotic pulse bunches, whose temporal structure can be partially resolved in real time with fast acquisition electronics, and compact chaotic bunches, which have been dubbed “noise-like pulses.”
