Short- and long-range temporal cavity soliton interaction in delay models of mode-locked lasers

Interaction equations governing slow time evolution of the coordinates and phases of two interacting temporal cavity solitons in a delay differential equation model of a nonlinear mirror mode-locked laser are derived and analyzed. It is shown that long-range soliton interaction due to gain depletion and recovery can lead either to a development of a harmonic mode-locking regime or to a formation of closely packed incoherent soliton bound state with weakly oscillating intersoliton time separation. Short-range soliton interaction via electric field tails can result in an antiphase or in-phase stationary and breathing harmonic mode-locking regimes.

Automated summary

This paper derives and analyzes the interaction equations governing the slow time evolution of two interacting temporal cavity solitons in a delay differential equation model of a nonlinear mirror mode-locked laser. The study shows that long-range soliton interaction can result in either harmonic mode-locking regime or closely packed incoherent soliton bound state, while short-range soliton interaction can lead to antiphase or in-phase stationary and breathing harmonic mode-locking regimes.