Phase-locked soliton pairs in a stretched-pulse fiber laser

Abstract

We report the experimental observation of stable pulse pairs with a +/-pi/2 phase difference in a passively mode-locked stretched-pulse fiber ring laser. In our setup the stabilization of interacting subpicosecond pulses is obtained with a large range of pulse separations, namely, from 2.7 to 10 ps, without the need for external control.