Self-organized structures of bound states in a 2  μm dispersion-managed mode-locked fiber laser

We report on the experimental generation of various self-organized structures of bound states in a near zero-dispersion mode-locked fiber laser. When the pump power is fixed at 492 mW, appropriately adjusting polarization controllers, the switching of the cavity feedback results in the evolution from the single pulse to the dispersion-managed soliton (i.e., stretched-pulse) pair. With the increase of pump power, bound states composed of more than two pulses can also be observed. Our results of the self-organized structures might enlarge the data-carrying capacity of current fiber-optical communication systems and benefit the investigation of nonlinear dynamics of bound states in fiber lasers at 2 μm.