Odyssey of Light in Nonlinear Optical Fibers

10 Exploring the frontiers of mode locking with fiber lasers

Philippe Grelu

10.1 Introduction

10.1.1 The Wonder of Mode Locking

The principle of the soliton has always been an important guideline for the development of short and ultrashort pulse sources [1]. However, the concept of passively mode-locked laser sources relies on the ability of the laser modes to self-organize in a highly competitive environment, excited and disturbed by noise, where gain and losses readily impact the development and the survival of any dynamical regime. For these reasons, it has become crystal clear that the dissipative soliton paradigm was the most adapted soliton concept to the case of mode locked lasers [2]. Contemplating the stable passive mode-locked dynamics ...