Period-doubling of gain-guided solitons in fiber lasers of large net normal dispersion

We report on the experimental observation and numerical simulations of period-doubling of gain-guided solitons in an erbium-doped fiber laser operating in the large net normal cavity dispersion regime. Features of the solitons before and after the period-doubling bifurcation are studied. Our results suggest again that period-doubling is an intrinsic feature of the mode-locked soliton lasers, which is independent of the mode-locked pulse property.