Structure formation in an Erbium-doped fiber ring laser

Pulse formation in a passively mode locked Erbium-doped fiber laser is expl ored. The light pulses travelling around the resonator can arrange themselv es into various structures depending on details of adjustment. These show u p as different patterns that are repeated at the cavity round trip frequenc y. We find that the individual pulses are around one picosecond wide and ha ve characteristic properties of solitons. Typically they arrange themselves into bunches with Various interpulse distances. These bunches can appear a s several-nanosecond wide pulses that tend to be more or less square shaped . (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.