Passive harmonic mode locking of twin-pulse solitons in an erbium-doped fiber ring laser

We report on the experimental observation of passive harmonic mode locking of twin-pulse solitons in an erbium-doped fiber ring laser. Experimental investigations on the passive harmonic mode locking of both the single-pulse and the twin-pulse solitons revealed that, apart from the gain recovery and acoustically induced soliton interactions, the global soliton interaction mediated through an unstable CW lasing in the laser cavity also plays an important role in the formation of the state in the laser. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.