  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 can however host at most
only a few solitons, which means that stochastic behaviour 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" within which multiple
solitons can be isolated and controlled both globally and individually. We
achieve on-demand synthesis and dissociation of soliton molecules within these
parallel 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 potential importance in all-optical information processing and
in the control of ultrafast pulsed lasers.
