Observation of multimode solitons in few-mode fiber

We experimentally isolate and directly observe multimode solitons in few-mode graded-index fiber. We rely on Raman frequency shifts to spectrally isolate these multimode solitons. By varying the input energy and modal composition of the launched pulse, we observe a continuous variation of multimode solitons with different spatiotemporal properties. They exhibit an energy-volume relation that is distinct from those of single-mode and fully spatiotemporal solitons. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America.