Vector patterns and dynamics in fiber laser cavities

In the absence of a fast saturable absorber, the temporal dynamics of vector fiber ring lasers still exhibits a rich and complex behavior, which can be addressed through universal distributed Ginzburg-Landau models. The continuous-wave mode of operation can be subject to Benjamin-Feir instabilities leading to stable antiphase pulsing. In the modulational stable regime, chaotic light emission featuring spatiotemporal intermittent pulsing can exhibit a transition towards stable antiphase patterns of polarization-domain structures. In the average normal dispersion regime, a mechanism of polarization-domain-wall formation can result from the simple conservative balance between dispersion and nonlinearity. These mechanisms are compared to experimental observations.