Attosecond timing jitter within a temporal soliton molecule

The interactions of optical solitons in passively mode-locked lasers result in abundant bound states that reflect intriguing nonlinear attractor behaviors in complex dissipative systems. In this study, we tested the strength limits of the fixed-point attractors that govern bound soliton molecule formation in passively mode-locked lasers. To this end, we probed the relative timing jitter in a closely separated stationary doublet soliton molecule produced by a Kerr-lens mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser. By adopting a balanced optical crosscorrelation method with a 5 zs/root Hz temporal resolution, we derive an upper estimate of 60 as intramolecular timing jitter, which is integrated from 100 Hz to the Nyquist frequency (60 MHz). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first evidence for attosecond timing jitter within robust bound solitons in dissipative systems. (c) 2020 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement