A graphene-based mode-locked nano-engineered zirconia–yttria–aluminosilicate glass-based erbium-doped fiber laser

We demonstrate a simple, compact and low cost graphene-based mode-locked nano-engineered erbium-doped zirconia?yttria?aluminosilicate (ZYA-EDF) glass-based fiber laser. The fiber preform in a quaternary glass host of silica?zirconia?yttria?aluminum was made through the modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) process followed by the solution doping technique. The core glass is made of 0.40?mol% of Al2O3, 3.0?mol% of ZrO2 and 0.25?mol% of Er2O3, which give rise to a peak absorption of 30.0?dB?m?1 at 978?nm and a fluorescence lifetime of 10.65?ms. Such a doping host provides the high concentration of erbium ions of 4500?ppm without any clustering. Such an active fiber was used as a gain medium for an ultra-fast femtosecond fiber laser, mode locked by a graphene oxide (GO) saturable absorber. This paper describes geometrical and optical characterization of the nano-engineered glass-based erbium-doped optical fiber (ZYA-EDF) as well as the performance of the mode-locked femtosecond laser based on the developed fiber. The all-anomalous cavity laser generated soliton pulses with 8.5?nm bandwidth, 50?MHz repetition frequency and nearly transform-limited 400?fs duration at 1561?nm center wavelength using a new class of EDF.

[1]  Min Zhou,et al.  Graphene-based passively Q-switched dual-wavelength erbium-doped fiber laser. , 2010, Optics letters.

[2]  P. McIntyre,et al.  Spinodal decomposition in amorphous metal–silicate thin films: Phase diagram analysis and interface effects on kinetics , 2002 .

[3]  A Mori,et al.  Gain characteristics of tellurite-based erbium-doped fiber amplifiers for 1.5-microm broadband amplification. , 1998, Optics letters.

[4]  Jaroslaw Sotor,et al.  Scalar soliton generation in all-polarization-maintaining, graphene mode-locked fiber laser. , 2012, Optics letters.

[5]  N. Melamed,et al.  A New Family of Self‐Activated Phosphors , 1963 .

[6]  Jaroslaw Sotor,et al.  Er-Doped Fiber Laser Mode-Locked by CVD-Graphene Saturable Absorber , 2012, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[7]  Zhenhua Ni,et al.  Atomic‐Layer Graphene as a Saturable Absorber for Ultrafast Pulsed Lasers , 2009, 0910.5820.

[8]  L. Orsila,et al.  Picosecond SESAM-based ytterbium mode-locked fiber lasers , 2004, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[9]  S. W. Harun,et al.  Wide-Band Bismuth-Based Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier With a Flat-Gain Characteristic , 2009, IEEE Photonics Journal.

[10]  Jianguo Tian,et al.  Ultrafast carrier dynamics and saturable absorption of solution-processable few-layered graphene oxide , 2011 .

[11]  M. Pal,et al.  Performance comparison of Zr-based and Bi-based erbium-doped fiber amplifiers. , 2010, Optics letters.

[12]  Y. Meng,et al.  Passive harmonically mode-locked fiber laser with low pumping power based on a graphene saturable absorber , 2012 .

[13]  Perry Ping Shum,et al.  Harmonic and single pulse operation of a Raman laser using graphene , 2012 .

[14]  Yong-Won Song,et al.  Multilayered graphene efficiently formed by mechanical exfoliation for nonlinear saturable absorbers in fiber mode-locked lasers , 2010 .

[15]  Dingyuan Tang,et al.  Large energy mode locking of an erbium-doped fiber laser with atomic layer graphene. , 2009, Optics express.

[16]  A. Boulle,et al.  From amorphous phase separations to nanostructured materials in sol–gel derived ZrO2:Eu3+/SiO2 and ZnO/SiO2 composites , 2006 .

[17]  V. C. Costa,et al.  Fluorescence Line-Narrowing Study of Eu3+-Doped Sol−Gel Silica: Effect of Modifying Cations on the Clustering of Eu3+ , 1996 .

[18]  G. Eda,et al.  Graphene oxide as a chemically tunable platform for optical applications. , 2010, Nature chemistry.

[19]  M. Pal,et al.  Wideband EDFA Based on Erbium Doped Crystalline Zirconia Yttria Alumino Silicate Fiber , 2010, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[20]  Kian Ping Loh,et al.  Dissipative soliton operation of an ytterbium-doped fiber laser mode locked with atomic multilayer graphene. , 2010, Optics letters.

[21]  Jia Xu,et al.  Graphene oxide mode-locked femtosecond erbium-doped fiber lasers. , 2012, Optics express.

[22]  F. Torrisi,et al.  Graphene Q-switched, tunable fiber laser , 2010, 1011.0115.

[23]  Randy Knize,et al.  Mode locking of ceramic Nd:yttrium aluminum garnet with graphene as a saturable absorber , 2010 .

[24]  Jaroslaw Sotor,et al.  Graphene oxide vs. reduced graphene oxide as saturable absorbers for Er-doped passively mode-locked fiber laser. , 2012, Optics express.

[25]  Karine Seneschal,et al.  Net gain of 15.5 dB from a 5.1 cm long Er/sup 3+/-doped phosphate glass fiber , 2000, Optical Fiber Communication Conference. Technical Digest Postconference Edition. Trends in Optics and Photonics Vol.37 (IEEE Cat. No. 00CH37079).

[26]  S. Banerjee,et al.  Large-Area Synthesis of High-Quality and Uniform Graphene Films on Copper Foils , 2009, Science.

[27]  Xiaoying He,et al.  Passively mode-locked fiber laser based on a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber filled with few-layered graphene oxide solution. , 2011, Optics letters.

[28]  Dingyuan Tang,et al.  Large energy soliton erbium-doped fiber laser with a graphene-polymer composite mode locker , 2009 .

[29]  Franz X Kärtner,et al.  High repetition rate, low jitter, low intensity noise, fundamentally mode-locked 167 fs soliton Er-fiber laser. , 2007, Optics letters.

[30]  Jing-Liang He,et al.  Graphene saturable absorber mirror for ultra-fast-pulse solid-state laser. , 2011, Optics letters.

[31]  Songnian Fu,et al.  High-energy laser pulse with a submegahertz repetition rate from a passively mode-locked fiber laser. , 2009, Optics letters.

[32]  Jacques Mugnier,et al.  Planar ZrO2 waveguides prepared by the sol-gel process: Structural and optical properties , 1997 .

[33]  F. Kärtner,et al.  Generation of sub-100-fs pulses at up to 200 MHz repetition rate from a passively mode-locked Yb-doped fiber laser. , 2005, Optics express.

[34]  U. Keller.  Recent developments in compact ultrafast lasers , 2003, Nature.

[35]  Gill,et al.  Spectroscopic site determinations in erbium-doped lithium niobate. , 1996, Physical review. B, Condensed matter.

[36]  S. Sergeyev,et al.  All-fiber polarization locked vector soliton laser using carbon nanotubes. , 2011, Optics letters.

[37]  S. Selleri,et al.  Design of erbium-doped triangular photonic-crystal-fiber-based amplifiers , 2004, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[38]  Shinji Yamashita,et al.  Optical deposition of graphene and carbon nanotubes in a fiber ferrule for passive mode-locked lasing. , 2010, Optics express.

[39]  Jaroslaw Sotor,et al.  All-polarization maintaining femtosecond Er-doped fiber laser mode-locked by graphene saturable absorber , 2012 .

[40]  Pieter G. Kik,et al.  Concentration quenching in erbium implanted alkali silicate glasses , 1996 .

[41]  J W Nicholson,et al.  Optically driven deposition of single-walled carbon-nanotube saturable absorbers on optical fiber end-faces. , 2007, Optics express.

[42]  Jia Xu,et al.  Dissipative soliton generation from a graphene oxide mode-locked Er-doped fiber laser. , 2012, Optics express.

[43]  A. Komarov,et al.  Passive harmonic mode-locking in a fiber laser with nonlinear polarization rotation , 2006 .