Eur. Phys. J. D 48, 255-260 (2008)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2008-00048-8

Vector solitons in femtosecond fibre lasers

Laboratory of Photonic Information Technology, School of Information and Photoelectric Science and Engineering, South China Normal University, Guangzhou University Town 510006, P.R. China Department of Physics, Foshan University, Foshan, 528000, P.R. China

Corresponding authors: ^a chenwch@163.com - ^b xuwch@scnu.edu.cn

Received: 20 August 2007
Revised: 9 December 2007
Published online: 19 March 2008

Abstract

Experimental observation of spectral sideband suppression of mode-locked pulses is obtained in an erbium-doped fibre ring laser with nonlinear polarization rotation techniques. This effect may indicate the formation of a vector soliton in accordance with the theoretical work of reference [Phys. Rev. E 74, 046605 (2006)]. The 3 dB spectral bandwidth, the central wavelength and the repetition rate of the vector solitons are 24.41 nm, 1565.14 nm and 12.15 MHz, respectively. Based on the experimental observations, we propose an experimental criterion for the production of vector solitons, with spectral sideband suppression as a sign of the generation of vector solitons.