title: Observation of Coexisting Dissipative Solitons in a Mode-Locked Fiber Laser.
abstract: We show, experimentally and numerically, that a mode-locked fiber laser can operate in a regime where two dissipative soliton solutions coexist and the laser will periodically switch between the solutions. The two dissipative solitons differ in their pulse energy and spectrum. The switching can be controlled by an external perturbation and triggered even when switching does not occur spontaneously. Numerical simulations unveil the importance of the double-minima loss spectrum and nonlinear gain to the switching dynamics.
authors.affiliation: JILA, University of Colorado & National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0440, USA.|State Key Laboratory of Precision Measurement Technology and Instruments, Department of Precision Instruments, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Chengying
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bao
authors.affiliation: Optical Sciences Group, Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia.
authors.forename: Wonkeun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Precision Measurement Technology and Instruments, Department of Precision Instruments, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Changxi
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Optical Sciences Group, Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia.
authors.forename: Nail
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Akhmediev
authors.affiliation: JILA, University of Colorado & National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0440, USA.|Physics Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA.
authors.forename: Steven T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Cundiff