Instabilities in a dissipative soliton-similariton laser using a scalar iterative map

Numerical simulations of a dissipative soliton-similariton laser are shown to reproduce a range of instabilities seen in recent experiments. The model uses a scalar nonlinear Schrodinger equation map, and regions of stability and instability are readily identified as a function of gain and saturable absorber parameters. Studying evolution over multiple round trips reveals spectral instabilities linked with soliton molecule internal motion, soliton explosions, chaos, and intermittence. For the case of soliton molecules, the relative phase variation in the spectrum is shown to be due to differences in nonlinear phase evolution between the molecule components over multiple round trips. (C) 2020 Optical Society of America