Single-axis soliton molecule and multiple solitons generation from a vector fiber laser

We investigate various patterns of vector solitons arising in a passively mode-locked fiber laser based on semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM). By properly adjusting the cavity parameters including the pump power and intra-cavity birefringence, the fundamental vector solitons, vector soliton molecules, and macroscopic vector solitons can be separately observed. In particular, both vector soliton molecule and macroscopic vector solitons exhibit multi-pulse structure along one polarization axis while there occurs single pulse profile at its orthogonal polarization component. Thus, they can be treated as “1 + 2” and “1+n” vector solitons. Moreover, the size of the macroscopic solitons can be manipulated from half of the cavity to even the whole cavity. The generation mechanisms of these vector soliton patterns are also investigated.