Vector dynamics of ultrafast cylindrical vector beams in a mode-locked fiber laser

The vector dynamics of solitons are crucial but easily neglected for realizing vortex solitons. In this Letter, we investigate the effect of vector dynamics on cylindrical vector beams (CVBs) implementation and propose a novel technical method to realize femtosecond CVBs based on vector-locked solitons, which are presented as group-velocity-locked vector solitons (GVLVSs) in the experiment. The outstanding vector properties of GVLVSs not only greatly improve the efficiency of solitons converted into CVBs and output power of CVBs (2.4 times and 4.1 times that of scalar solitons and vector change periodical solitons, with the purity of 97.2%), but also relax the obstacle of ultrafast CVBs from the fundamental frequency to the harmonic regime (up to 198 MHz) for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. This is the highest repetition rate reported for ultrafast CVBs based on passive mode-locking. The investigation of the influence of solitons vector dynamics evolution on the realization of CVBs provides guidance for the excellent performance of ultrafast CVBs.