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Abstract

Mode-locked lasers have been widely used to explore interactions between optical solitons, including bound-soliton
states that may be regarded as “photonic molecules”. Conventional mode-locked lasers normally, however, host at
most only a few solitons, which means that stochastic behaviours involving large numbers of solitons cannot easily be
studied under controlled experimental conditions. Here we report the use of an optoacoustically mode-locked fibre
laser to create hundreds of temporal traps or “reactors” in parallel, within each of which multiple solitons can be
isolated and controlled both globally and individually using all-optical methods. We achieve on-demand synthesis and
dissociation of soliton molecules within these reactors, in this way unfolding a novel panorama of diverse dynamics in
which the statistics of multi-soliton interactions can be studied. The results are of crucial importance in understanding
dynamical soliton interactions and may motivate potential applications for all-optical control of ultrafast light fields in
optical resonators.