Mode-locked lasers have been widely used to explore interactions between optical solitons, including bound-soliton states that may be regarded as “photonic molecules”. Conventional mode-locked lasers normally, however, host at most only a few solitons, which means that stochastic behaviours involving large numbers of solitons cannot easily be studied under controlled experimental conditions. Here we report the use of an optoacoustically mode-locked fibre laser to create hundreds of temporal traps or “reactors” in parallel, within each of which multiple solitons can be isolated and controlled both globally and individually using all-optical methods. We achieve on-demand synthesis and dissociation of soliton molecules within these reactors, in this way unfolding a novel panorama of diverse dynamics in which the statistics of multi-soliton interactions can be studied. The results are of crucial importance in understanding dynamical soliton interactions and may motivate potential applications for all-optical control of ultrafast light fields in optical resonators.

锁模激光器已被广泛用于探索光学孤子之间的相互作用，包括可被视为“光子分子”的束缚孤子态。然而，传统的锁模激光器通常最多只有几个孤子，这意味着在受控实验条件下不容易研究涉及大量孤子的随机行为。在这里，我们报告了使用光声锁模光纤激光器来并行创建数百个时间陷阱或“反应器”，在每个陷阱或“反应器”中，可以使用全光学方法全局和单独地隔离和控制多个孤子。我们在这些反应器中实现了孤子分子的按需合成和解离，以这种方式展现了不同动力学的新全景，其中可以研究多孤子相互作用的统计数据。该结果对于理解动态孤子相互作用至关重要，并可能激发光学谐振器中超快光场全光控制的潜在应用。