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Soliton molecules in a fiber laser based on optic evanescent field interaction with WS2

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Abstract

Passively mode-locked fiber laser serves as an ideal playground for exploring the dynamics of dissipative solitons. Recently, two-dimensional materials have attracted growing interests for their excellent optical properties in the research field of ultrafast optics. Here, we report an observation of soliton molecules in a passively mode-locked fiber laser based on optic evanescent field interaction with tungsten disulfide (WS2), which contributes to the study of multi-soliton complexes. Particularly, the WS2 saturable absorber (SA) is fabricated by optically depositing the few-layer WS2 nanosheets onto microfiber. In the experiment, stable mode-locking operations are realized, which manifest the effective performance of the WS2 SA. Harmonic mode-locking phenomena are also observed, and these separate solitons facilitate the generation of multi-soliton complexes. Furthermore, due to soliton–soliton interaction, wandering particle-like solitons can be bound together to produce soliton molecules and bunch of soliton molecules. These results enrich both the exploration of multi-soliton complexes and potential industrial applications.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant number: 61775072), the Wuhan Morning Light Plan of Youth Science and Technology (Grant number: 2017050304010280), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (HUST, Grant number: 2017KFXKJC002), the Science Fund for Creative Research Groups of the Nature Science Foundation of Hubei (Grant number: 2018CFA004), the Major Projects of Technical Innovation of Hubei (Grant number: 2018AAA040), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded Project (Grant number: 2018M630853).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, Hubei, People’s Republic of China

    Bowen Liu, Yang Xiang, Yiyang Luo, Shuai Zhu, Zhijun Yan, Qizhen Sun & Deming Liu

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  1. Bowen Liu
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  2. Yang Xiang
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  3. Yiyang Luo
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  4. Shuai Zhu
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  5. Zhijun Yan
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  6. Qizhen Sun
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  7. Deming Liu
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yiyang Luo or Qizhen Sun.

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Liu, B., Xiang, Y., Luo, Y. et al. Soliton molecules in a fiber laser based on optic evanescent field interaction with WS2. Appl. Phys. B 124, 151 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-018-7019-5

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