Similariton pulse instability in mode-locked Yb-doped fiber laser in the vicinity of zero cavity dispersion.

ABSTRACT

Stability of the similariton mode-locked regime in Yb-doped fiber laser in the vicinity of zero cavity dispersion is studied by means of numerical simulations. It is shown that similariton pulses which initially arise from laser noise collapse into a continuous wave state. The mode-locked pulses are found to be stable after a certain cavity dispersion threshold is exceeded. From analysis of the instability development, we conclude that instability has parametric nature. We compare our results with stability analysis based on the Ginzburg-Landau approach. Analogies with instabilities found in the long-haul fiber communication systems are also discussed.