Theoretical and experimental studies of breather wave molecules

The formation of localized wave structures has attracted a significant research interest in a variety of conservative and dissipative systems, including photonics, plasma physics, Bose-Einstein condensates, fluid mechanics, biology and chemistry. Besides their formation, their mutual interactions such as collisions and formation of stable bound states have been particularly investigated in laser physics [1-3]. Such dissipative multi-soliton complexes, also called photonic molecules, result from self-organization phenomena, showing dynamics similar to matter molecules, such as synthesis and vibration. The build-up and transient regimes of dissipative localized structures in mode-locked fiber lasers are currently the subject of intense studies by means of real-time ultrafast measurements [2-3].