Spectral pulsations of dissipative solitons in ultrafast fiber lasers: period doubling and beyond

Period doubling is a universal bifurcation of central importance in all disciplines of nonlinear science, which generally signals the existence of chaotic dynamics in the vicinity of the system parameters. Although observed in diverse ultrafast laser configurations, there is still no consensus on its physical origin. The observations also include other types of pulsating dissipative solitons, with either short or long periods. Real time spectral characterization allows to investigate optical spectral oscillations, whose features reveal the intracavity dynamics leading to instabilities. Following a contextual review, this article presents a variety of period doubling dynamics manifesting in the spectral domain of dissipative solitons. These dynamics are obtained with ultrafast fiber lasers featuring either anomalous or normal dispersion. It reveals a sequence of period doubling bifurcations and instabilities within transient dynamics, unveiling intertwined bifurcations and the entrainment of new pulsating frequencies. The oscillating frequencies tend to lock to the integral of roundtrip numbers as well as coexist with period doubling, demonstrating new combinations of the period doubling bifurcation with other bifurcations. These experimental findings are confirmed by numerical simulations, emphasizing both the universality of the period doubling bifurcations and their potentially highly complicated manifestations within ultrafast laser systems.