Chaotic dynamics of a passively mode-locked soliton fiber ring laser

We report on the experimental and numerical studies of the chaotic dynamics of a soliton fiber ring laser passively mode-locked by using the nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) technique. Period-doubling route to chaos on the soliton repetition rate of either the single pulse soliton or the bound solitons of the laser was experimentally observed. Based on a coupled complex Ginzburg-Landau equation model and also taking into account the laser cavity effect, we further show numerically that the period-doubling bifurcations and route to chaos are intrinsic properties of the laser, whose appearance is independent of the details of the laser cavity design and the laser soliton operation. Property of the solitons under the dynamical bifurcations is also numerically investigated.