Mode-locked thulium–bismuth codoped fiber laser using graphene saturable absorber in ring cavity
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2013
Abstract
We demonstrate mode locking of a thulium–bismuth codoped fiber laser (TBFL) operating at 1901.6 nm, using a graphene-based saturable absorber (SA). In this work, a single layer graphene is mechanically exfoliated using the scotch tape method and directly transferred onto the surface of a fiber pigtail to fabricate the SA. The obtained Raman spectrum characteristic indicates that the graphene on the core surface has a single layer. At 1552 nm pump power of 869 mW, the mode-locked TBFL self starts to generate an optical pulse train with a repetition rate of 16.7 MHz and pulse width of 0.37 ps. This is a simple, low-cost, stable, and convenient laser oscillator for applications where eye-safe and low-photon-energy light sources are required, such as sensing and biomedical diagnostics.
Keywords
Mode-locked, Thulium–bismuth codoped fiber laser, Graphene saturable absorber, Ring cavity
Divisions
PHYSICS
Publication Title
Applied Optics
Volume
52
Issue
6
Publisher
Optical Society of America