Wavelength-tunable, passively mode-locked fiber laser based on graphene and chirped fiber Bragg grating

Abstract

We demonstrate a wavelength-tunable, passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser based on graphene and chirped fiber Bragg grating. The saturable absorber used to enable passive mode-locking in the fiber laser is a section of microfiber covered by graphene film, which allows light-graphene interaction via the evanescent field of the microfiber. The wavelength of the laser can be continuously tuned by adjusting the chirped fiber Bragg grating, while maintaining mode-locking stability. Such a system has high potential in tuning the mode-locked laser pulses across a wide wavelength range.

Versatile multi-wavelength ultrafast fiber laser mode-locked by carbon nanotubes

“…Among these saturable absorbers, nanotube and graphene are particularly interesting for multi-wavelength pulsed lasers as they both exhibit extraordinarily broad operation bandwidth for multi-wavelength pulse generation. Indeed, such unique broadband property has been experimentally confirmed for nanotube2935 and graphene33 by wavelength tunable3235 and dual-wavelength3034 pulsed lasers. However, triple-wavelength mode-locking laser has not been demonstrated with carbon nanotubes.…”

“…broad operation bandwidth20). Currently, various saturable absorbers, such as nonlinear loop mirrors2122, nonlinear polarization rotation2324, semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs)202526, carbon nanotubes7101127282930, and graphene831323334, have been employed for ultrafast pulse generation. Among these saturable absorbers, nanotube and graphene are particularly interesting for multi-wavelength pulsed lasers as they both exhibit extraordinarily broad operation bandwidth for multi-wavelength pulse generation.…”

Graphene Saturable Absorber Based on Slightly Tapered Fiber With Inner Air-Cavity

“…It can be found from the figure that while cladding mode is confined in the silica, its associated evanescent field should exist in air. When compared with other tapered fiber based SA reported [11][12][13][14], our slightly tapered fiber with inner air-cavity has a relatively large surface area owing to its large radius, hence a good modal overlap with graphene can be obtained to support more efficient light-graphene interaction.…”

A long cavity graphene-based mode-locked fiber laser for high pulse energy output

“…Usually, the graphene has been transferred to single mode fiber adaptors to let the light pass through the graphene layers. In order to increase the light-graphene interaction, graphene combined with side-polished fiber [8], tapered fiber [9], and photonic crystal fiber [10] has been used as saturable absorber (SA). However, it is still difficult to control the uniformity of graphene on these fiber and effectively enhance the light-graphene interaction to obtain a high pulse energy output.…”