Pieczarka, MaciejPoletti, DSchneider, CHofling, SvenOstrovskaya, ElenaSek, GSyperek, M2022-07-252022-07-252378-0967http://hdl.handle.net/1885/269899We demonstrate an experimental approach for creating spatially localized states in a semiconductor microcavity laser. In particular, we shape the spatial gain profile of a quasi-one-dimensional microcavity laser with a nonresonant, pulsed optical pump to create spatially localized structures, known as gain-pinned dissipative solitons, that exist due to the balance of gain and nonlinear losses. We directly probe the ultrafast formation dynamics and decay of these localized structures, showing that they are created on a picosecond timescale, orders of magnitude faster than laser cavity solitons. All of the experimentally observed features and dynamics are reconstructed by numerical modeling using a complex Ginzburg-Landau model, which explicitly takes into account the carrier density dynamics in the semiconductorThis work was supported by the National Science Center in Poland, by Grant Nos. 2016/23/N/ST3/01350 and 2018/30/E/ST7/00648, and by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange. The Würzburg group gratefully acknowledges support by the State of Bavaria. The work at the Australian National University was supported by the Australian Research Council.application/pdfen-AU© 2020 Author(s).202010.1063/5.00106332021-08-01