Polarization-locked temporal vector solitons in a fiber laser: theory

Stable polarization-locked temporal vector solitons are found in a saturable absorber mode-locked fiber laser with weak cavity birefringence. The system is theoretically modeled with two coupled complex Ginzburg-Landau equations that include fiber birefringence, spectral filtering, saturable gain, and slow saturable absorption. The solutions to this system are similar to those for elliptically polarized vector solitons in a lossless birefringent fiber. Numerical simulations show qualitative agreement with experimental results. (C) 2000 Optical Society of America [S0740-3224(00)00603-2] OCIS codes: 190.5530, 260.1440, 260.5210, 140.3510, 140.4050.