Taming the Ultrafast Chaotic Wave-Packet in a TOD-Driven Laser

Abstract

Chaotic wave-packets resulting from the interaction of the waves with the propagating medium are widespread phenomena in nonlinear systems. Taming the ultrafast wave-packet from chaotic to stable holds great promise to explore nonlinear dynamic events, i.e., laminar-turbulent transition, and find practical applications such as secure communications and metrology. However, manipulating the chaotic dynamics of ultrafast wave-packet in a laser remains challenging, owing to the random gain sharing and competition among the pulses within the wave-packet. Here, a powerful strategy to manipulate the chaotic pulse interactions within the wave-packet by harnessing third-order dispersion (TOD) in a mode-locked laser is developed. The radiation of dispersive waves induced by TOD results in a collapse of low-intensity pulses and also enables an equilibrium force that stabilizes the remaining high-intensity pulses. This, in turn, leads to an effective control of ultrafast wave-packet from chaotic to sable regime that is dependent on the amount of TOD. The approach provides a general and robust scheme to tame the ultrafast chaotic wave-packets, and will bring new insights into the underlying nonlinear physics of chaotic lasers as well as a variety of applications.