Non-local and local temporal cavity soliton interaction in delay models of mode-locked lasers

Abstract Interaction equations governing slow time evolution of the coordinates and phases of two interacting temporal cavity solitons in a delay differential equation model of a nonlinear mirror mode-locked laser are derived and analyzed. It is shown that non-local pulse interaction due to gain depletion and recovery can lead either to a development of harmonic mode-locking regime, or to a formation of closely packed incoherent soliton bound state with weakly oscillating intersoliton time separation. Local interaction via electric field tails can result in an anti-phase or in-phase stationary and breathing harmonic mode-locking regimes.