| Abstract: |
| Optical solitary waves (solitons) arise from the balance between dispersion and nonlinear effects at high optical intensities in laser cavities. Interestingly, solitons can form transient or stable pulse aggregates referred to as soliton molecules. Although these structures show promise for applications in quantum memory and advanced telecommunications, they present challenges in laser development. Emission involving multiple pulses affects nonlinear frequency conversion and generates pronounced amounts noise. Moreover, detecting these formations is difficult with standard methods such as intensity autocorrelation or spectral analysis due to instrumental constraints, so they often go overlooked.
In this talk, we will discuss a practical method for fast, real-time diagnostics of pulsed lasers based on two-photon absorption in a nonlinear photodetector. This approach allows the observation of soliton molecules with separations ranging from femtoseconds to nanoseconds, across any wavelength and timescale, using a standard telecom laser oscillator and a low-bandwidth oscilloscope. We will demonstrate how this technique can be used to monitor basic soliton molecules, such as triplets and quadruplets, as well as more intricate structures like molecular crystals and soliton rains. We will also cover the use of shared-cavity dual-comb lasers for studies on soliton-soliton interactions. |
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