DISSIPATIVE SOLITONS IN PASSIVELY MODE-LOCKED FIBER LASERS

We introduce the concept of dissipative solitons , which emerge as a result of a double balance: between nonlinearity and dispersion and also between gain and loss. Such dissipative solitons have many unique properties which differ from those of their conservative counterparts and which make them similar to living things. We focus our discussion on dissipative solitons in fiber lasers, which can be described by the cubic-quintic complex Ginzburg-Landau equation (CGLE). In the field of nonlinear optics, the CGLE can describe also several other systems, namely optical parametric oscillators, free-electron laser oscillators, and all-optical transmission lines