Black phosphorus Q-switched and mode-locked mid-infrared Er:ZBLAN fiber laser at 3.5 μm wavelength.

With the proposal of dual-wavelength pumping (DWP) scheme, DWP Er:ZBLAN fiber lasers at 3.5 μm have become a fascinating area of research. However, limited by the absence of suitable saturable absorber, passively Q-switched and mode-locked fiber lasers have not been realized in this spectral region. Based on the layer-dependent bandgap and excellent photoelectric characteristics of black phosphorus (BP), BP is a promising candidate for saturable absorber near 3.5 μm. Here, we fabricated a 3.5-μm saturable absorber mirror (SAM) by transferring BP flakes onto a Au-coated mirror. With the as-prepared BP SAM, we realized Q-switching and mode-locking operations in the DWP Er:ZBLAN fiber lasers at 3.5 μm. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time to achieve passively Q-switched and mode-locked pulses in 3.5 μm spectral region. The research results will not only promote the development of 3.5-μm pulsed fiber lasers but also open the photonics application of two-dimensional materials in this spectral region.

[1]  Stuart D. Jackson,et al.  Recent Advances in 3.5 μm Erbium-Doped Mid-Infrared Fiber Lasers , 2017, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[2]  Liejia Qian,et al.  Wavelength-Versatile Graphene-Gold Film Saturable Absorber Mirror for Ultra-Broadband Mode-Locking of Bulk Lasers , 2014, Scientific Reports.

[3]  J. C. van den Heuvel,et al.  Development of a mid-infrared laser for study of infrared countermeasures techniques , 2004, SPIE Security + Defence.

[4]  Shuangchun Wen,et al.  Mechanically exfoliated black phosphorus as a new saturable absorber for both Q-switching and Mode-locking laser operation. , 2015, Optics express.

[5]  P. Hering,et al.  Online monitoring of ethane traces in exhaled breath with a difference frequency generation spectrometer , 2006 .

[6]  S. Wen,et al.  Black phosphorus as saturable absorber for the Q-switched Er:ZBLAN fiber laser at 2.8 μm. , 2015, Optics express.

[7]  Y. Messaddeq,et al.  Mid-infrared chalcogenide glass Raman fiber laser. , 2013, Optics letters.

[8]  David Chapman,et al.  Widely tunable single-mode quantum cascade laser source for mid-infrared spectroscopy , 2007 .

[9]  Liejia Qian,et al.  Graphene saturable absorber for Q-switching and mode locking at 2 μm wavelength [Invited] , 2012 .

[10]  M. Fuhrer,et al.  Creating a Stable Oxide at the Surface of Black Phosphorus. , 2015, ACS applied materials & interfaces.

[11]  Shuangchun Wen,et al.  Ultra-short pulse generation by a topological insulator based saturable absorber , 2012 .

[12]  Réal Vallée,et al.  5.6  W monolithic fiber laser at 3.55  μm. , 2017, Optics letters.

[13]  Frank W. Wise,et al.  Generation of intense 100 fs solitons tunable from 2 to 4.3 μm in fluoride fiber , 2016 .

[14]  Likai Li,et al.  Black phosphorus field-effect transistors. , 2014, Nature nanotechnology.

[15]  Martin Gorjan,et al.  Numerical Modeling of $3.5~ {\mu }\text{m}$ Dual-Wavelength Pumped Erbium-Doped Mid-Infrared Fiber Lasers , 2016, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

[16]  Jesper Munch,et al.  Mid-infrared fiber lasers at and beyond 3.5 μm using dual-wavelength pumping. , 2014, Optics letters.

[17]  Jaroslaw Sotor,et al.  Sub-130 fs mode-locked Er-doped fiber laser based on topological insulator. , 2014, Optics express.

[18]  S. Wen,et al.  Broadband nonlinear optical response in multi-layer black phosphorus: an emerging infrared and mid-infrared optical material. , 2015, Optics express.

[19]  Haijun Zhang,et al.  Experimental Realization of a Three-Dimensional Topological Insulator, Bi2Te3 , 2009, Science.

[20]  Shuangchun Wen,et al.  Mid-infrared mode-locked pulse generation with multilayer black phosphorus as saturable absorber. , 2016, Optics letters.

[21]  Jing Li,et al.  Exfoliated layers of black phosphorus as saturable absorber for ultrafast solid-state laser. , 2015, Optics letters.

[22]  Jesper Munch,et al.  New energy-transfer upconversion process in Er3+:ZBLAN mid-infrared fiber lasers. , 2016, Optics express.

[23]  R. L. Barns,et al.  Band gap versus composition and demonstration of Vegard’s law for In1−xGaxAsyP1−y lattice matched to InP , 1978 .

[24]  Ori Henderson-Sapir,et al.  Versatile and widely tunable mid-infrared erbium doped ZBLAN fiber laser. , 2016, Optics letters.

[25]  Liejia Qian,et al.  Over 20-W Mid-Infrared Picosecond Optical Parametric Oscillator , 2015, IEEE Photonics Journal.

[26]  A. Ferrari,et al.  Graphene Photonics and Optoelectroncs , 2010, CLEO 2012.

[27]  Younes Messaddeq,et al.  Toward all-fiber supercontinuum spanning the mid-infrared , 2017 .

[28]  G. Xie,et al.  Black phosphorus as broadband saturable absorber for pulsed lasers from 1 μm to 2.7 μm wavelength , 2015, 1508.04510.

[29]  Stuart D. Jackson,et al.  Ultrafast pulses from a mid-infrared fiber laser. , 2015, Optics letters.

[30]  R. Soklaski,et al.  Layer-controlled band gap and anisotropic excitons in few-layer black phosphorus , 2014 .

[31]  Jaroslaw Sotor,et al.  Ultrafast thulium-doped fiber laser mode locked with black phosphorus. , 2015, Optics letters.

[32]  Michel Piché,et al.  Femtosecond fiber lasers reach the mid-infrared , 2015 .

[33]  Z. K. Liu,et al.  Experimental Realization of a Three-Dimensional Topological Insulator , 2010 .

[34]  R. Lu,et al.  Black phosphorus: a two-dimension saturable absorption material for mid-infrared Q-switched and mode-locked fiber lasers , 2016, Scientific Reports.

[35]  Qiangfei Xia,et al.  Black Phosphorus Mid-Infrared Photodetectors with High Gain. , 2016, Nano letters.

[36]  J. Coleman,et al.  Ultrafast Nonlinear Excitation Dynamics of Black Phosphorus Nanosheets from Visible to Mid-Infrared. , 2016, ACS nano.

[37]  D. Tang,et al.  Graphene mode-locked femtosecond laser at 2 μm wavelength. , 2012, Optics letters.

[38]  R. Vallée,et al.  Quenching of $3.4~\mu \text{m}$ Dual-Wavelength Pumped Erbium Doped Fiber Lasers , 2017, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

[39]  Zhipei Sun,et al.  Nanotube and graphene saturable absorbers for fibre lasers , 2013, Nature Photonics.

[40]  Andres Castellanos-Gomez,et al.  Photovoltaic effect in few-layer black phosphorus PN junctions defined by local electrostatic gating. , 2014, Nature communications.

[41]  Martin Gorjan,et al.  Numerical Modeling of 3 . 5 μ m Dual-Wavelength Pumped Erbium Doped Mid-Infrared Fiber Lasers , 2016 .

[42]  J. B. Paul,et al.  Mid-IR difference frequency laser-based sensors for ambient CH4, CO, and N2O monitoring , 2013 .