Different temporal patterns of vector soliton bunching induced by polarization-dependent saturable absorber

• A fiber laser with a PID-SESAM or a PD-SESAM is constructed for obtaining vector soliton bunching.
• Only the vibrating soliton bunching is generated from the fiber laser with a PID-SESAM.
• There are abundant temporal patterns of soliton bunching generated from the fiber laser with a PD-SESAM.
• The polarization property of the saturable absorber plays a pivotal role for achieving different temporal patterns.

A fiber laser with either a polarization-independent semiconductor saturable absorption mirror (PID-SESAM) or a polarization-dependent SESAM (PD-SESAM) as a passive mode-locker is constructed for obtaining the vector soliton bunching. The temporal patterns of the soliton bunching generated from the fiber laser with a PD-SESAM are much more abundant than that in fiber laser with a PID-SESAM. Only the vibrating soliton bunching is generated from the fiber laser with a PID-SESAM. However, there are another three interesting temporal patterns of the soliton bunching generated from the fiber laser with a PD-SESAM except for the vibrating soliton bunching. They are variable length soliton bunching, breathing soliton bunching and stable soliton bunching along the slow axis induced by polarization instability. It is found that the polarization property of the saturable absorber plays a pivotal role for achieving different temporal patterns of the soliton bunching.