Soliton collapse and bunched noise-like pulse generation in a passively mode-locked fiber ring laser

A passively mode-locked soliton fiber ring laser with dispersion managed cavity is reported. The laser emits intense bunched noise-like pulses including the transform limited pulses. The optical spectrum of the laser emission has a bandwidth as broad as 32.10 nm. It was found that purely depending on the linear cavity phase delay the laser could be switched between the soliton operation and the noise-like pulse emission. Numerical simulations showed that the laser emission was caused by the combined effect of soliton collapse and positive cavity feedback in the laser.