Extreme pulse dynamics in mode-locked lasers

Abstract

This chapter is devoted to dissipative solitons that produce sharp peaks (spikes) on top of its high amplitude central part. The peak amplitude of these spikes can exceed several times the amplitude of the soliton base. This unusual phenomenon is found for solutions of the complex cubic-quintic Ginzburg-Landau equation (CGLE) in a special region of its free parameters. Depending on them, the spikes can appear chaotically or regularly. Both regimes are discussed in this chapter. The spikes with chaotic appearance can be considered as rogue waves and the probability density function confirms this. The solitons with spikes can also be considered as noise-like pulses that have been discussed in several recent publications without actually revealing the nature of the noise. The wide spectrum of these pulses suggests their application for generation of super-continuum directly out of lasers. The transition from regular to chaotic dynamics can be used in experiments to investigate this new interesting phenomenon.