Optical Soliton Cooper Pairs in Mamyshev Oscillators

The framework of superconductivity unveiled the striking concept that electrons form Cooper pairs through the subtle interplay of lattice vibrations, surmounting their Coulombic repulsion in the process. The concept of Cooper pairs has been established beyond the Fermi system, and this pairing mechanism is expected to extend to quasiparticle systems. Here, we report the soliton Cooper pairs in a Mamyshev oscillator. The soliton-phonon coupling yields a long-range attraction between solitons, balancing the Coulomb-like force, i.e., the gain depletion and recovery effect. With this, two solitons can form high-stable bound pair, even in the presence of intervening solitons. We characterize these long-range paired solitons comprehensively both in the time and phase domains. These discoveries herald a new method to manipulate nonlocal response for applications in optical systems and can help to understand particle-phonon coupling in fundamental physics.