Abstract

Passive modelocking in fiber lasers is one of the most common techniques to generate a single soliton or a train. Several experiments have been reported that demonstrate either bunches or short but regular sequences of solitons at very high rep rates.¹ An alternative to the conventional modelocking technique, modulation-instability has permitted the conversion of a beat signal, through nonlinear propagation in a decreasing dispersion fiber, into a train of solitons with relatively low duty cycle.² Analogously, the injection of a pump into a nonlinear and dispersive passive ring may lead as well to insurgence of modulational instability of the circulating radiation.³ In this case, however, no cw soliton train generation was experimentally observed.

© 1996 Optical Society of America