Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Observation of Polarization-Locked Vector Solitons in Optical Fiber

Published

Author(s)

S T. Cundiff, B C. Collins, N N. Akhmediev, J M. Soto-Crespo, K Bergman, W H. Knox

Abstract

We observe the formation of polarization-locked vector solitons in a modelocked fiber laser. Temporal vector solitons contain components along both principal axes of the birefringent laser cavity. The relative phase of the two components is locked to a value of π/2, despite the different phase velocities due to linear birefringence, resulting in a fixed elliptical polarization state. The value of π/2 and component magnitudes agree with a simple theoretical analysis of effect of the Kerr nonlinearity in the optical fiber. These fragile phase-locked vector solitons have been the subject of much theoretical conjecture, but have previously eluded experimental observation.
Citation
Science

Keywords

fibers, solitons

Citation

Cundiff, S. , Collins, B. , Akhmediev, N. , Soto-Crespo, J. , Bergman, K. and Knox, W. (2008), Observation of Polarization-Locked Vector Solitons in Optical Fiber, Science (Accessed April 24, 2024)
Created October 16, 2008