Two-photon imaging of soliton dynamics

Optical solitary waves (solitons) that interact in a nonlinear system can bind and form a structure similar to a molecule. The rich dynamics of this process have created a demand for rapid spectral characterization to deepen the understanding of soliton physics with many practical implications. Here, we demonstrate stroboscopic, two-photon imaging of soliton molecules (SM) with completely unsynchronized lasers, where the wavelength and bandwidth constraints are considerably eased compared to conventional imaging techniques. Two-photon detection enables the probe and tested oscillator to operate at completely different wavelengths, which permits mature near-infrared laser technology to be leveraged for rapid SM studies of emerging long-wavelength laser sources. As a demonstration, using a 1550 nm probe laser we image the behavior of soliton singlets across the 1800-2100 nm range, and capture the rich dynamics of evolving multiatomic SM. This technique may prove to be an essential, easy-to-implement diagnostic tool for detecting the presence of loosely-bound SM, which often remain unnoticed due to instrumental resolution or bandwidth limitations.