Observation of modulation instability in a fiber soliton ring laser

We report on an experimental observation of modulation instability in a pas sively mode-locked fiber soliton ring laser. We show that although in fiber soliton lasers soliton pulses are inherently stable against modulation ins tability, dispersive waves caused by the periodic perturbation of solitons propagating in the cavity are not. Due to modulation instability the disper sive waves can become unstable and consequently result in the generation of new spectral components in the soliton spectrum. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.