Experimental observation of a cyclic dynamics of solitons in a fiber laser.

We report an experimental observation of a singular soliton dynamics in a mode-locked erbium doped fiber laser. This is the first time, to our knowledge, that output intensity exhibits a cyclic transition from a single-pulse to a multi-pulse regime for a fixed value of both pumping power and polarization controllers orientation. Moreover, the pulse duration of the single- and multi-pulse regimes is the same, in contrast with what is usually observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]