title: Hysteresis of dissipative soliton molecules in mode-locked fiber lasers.
abstract: We numerically demonstrate bistability of a robust dissipative soliton molecule with independently evolving phase in a normal dispersion mode-locked fiber laser. It is shown that the separation of the peaks exhibits a hysteretic behavior as a function of the pump energy. Physically this corresponds to the coexistence of two bound-state branches, one with chaotic dynamics and another one with periodic dynamics. The crucial role of gain saturation for the appearance of the hysteresis is revealed. We observe the period-doubling route to chaos.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Condensed Matter Theory and Solid State Optics, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Max-Wien-Platz 1,07743 Jena, Germany. aleksandr.zavyalov@uni-jena.de
authors.forename: Aleksandr
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zavyalov
authors.forename: Rumen
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Iliew
authors.forename: Oleg
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Eogrov
authors.forename: Falk
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lederer