Abstract

Three-dimensional solitons are highly sought after objects in nonlinear science. In nonlinear photonics they correspond to light bullets, but their experimental observation as long-term stable structures remains elusive in spite of impressive advances [1]. Broad-area vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) combine a large Fresnel number with a high nonlinearity and fast time scales. Stationary spatial solitons in 2D as well as mode-locking and temporal solitons without self-localization in space are known to exist. It is intriguing to explore a combination of these two aspects to achieve self-localization of light in three dimensions [2]. Here we report on the observation of mode-locked states of spatial solitons.

© 2017 IEEE