A femtosecond pulse erbium fiber laser incorporating a saturable absorber based on bulk-structured Bi2Te3 topological insulator.

We experimentally demonstrate the use of a bulk-structured Bi(2)Te(3) topological insulator (TI) as an ultrafast mode-locker to generate femtosecond pulses from an all-fiberized cavity. Using a saturable absorber based on a mechanically exfoliated layer about 15 μm thick deposited onto a side-polished fiber, we show that stable soliton pulses with a temporal width of ~600 fs can readily be produced at 1547 nm from an erbium fiber ring cavity. Unlike previous TI-based mode-locked laser demonstrations, in which high-quality nanosheet-based TIs were used for saturable absorption, we chose to use a bulk-structured Bi(2)Te(3) layer because it is easy to fabricate. We found that the bulk-structured Bi(2)Te(3) layer can readily provide sufficient nonlinear saturable absorption for femtosecond mode-locking even if its modulation depth of ~15.7% is much lower than previously demonstrated nanosheet-structured TI-based saturable absorbers. This experimental demonstration indicates that high-crystalline-quality atomic-layered films of TI, which demand complicated and expensive material processing facilities, are not essential for ultrafast laser mode-locking applications.

[1]  J. D. Rameau,et al.  Spin-orbit interaction effect in the electronic structure of Bi2Te3 observed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy , 2008, 0803.0052.

[2]  Shuangchun Wen,et al.  Topological Insulator: $\hbox{Bi}_{2}\hbox{Te}_{3}$ Saturable Absorber for the Passive Q-Switching Operation of an in-Band Pumped 1645-nm Er:YAG Ceramic Laser , 2013, IEEE Photonics Journal.

[3]  Philippe Emplit,et al.  Towards mode-locked fiber laser using topological insulators , 2012 .

[4]  S. Kelly,et al.  Characteristic sideband instability of periodically amplified average soliton , 1992 .

[5]  Jun Li,et al.  Large-scale production of ultrathin topological insulator bismuth telluride nanosheets by a hydrothermal intercalation and exfoliation route , 2012 .

[6]  R. Cava,et al.  Observation of a large-gap topological-insulator class with a single Dirac cone on the surface , 2009 .

[7]  Shuangchun Wen,et al.  Wavelength-tunable picosecond soliton fiber laser with Topological Insulator: Bi2Se3 as a mode locker. , 2012, Optics express.

[8]  O. Okhotnikov,et al.  Mode-locked ytterbium fiber laser tunable in the 980-1070-nm spectral range. , 2003, Optics letters.

[9]  Shuangchun Wen,et al.  Self-Assembled Topological Insulator: Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$ Membrane as a Passive Q-Switcher in an Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser , 2013, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

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

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

[12]  L. Molenkamp,et al.  Quantum Spin Hall Insulator State in HgTe Quantum Wells , 2007, Science.

[13]  Vivek Goyal,et al.  Exfoliation and characterization of bismuth telluride atomic quintuples and quasi-two-dimensional crystals. , 2010, Nano letters.

[14]  Andre K. Geim,et al.  Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films , 2004, Science.

[15]  Zhong Lin Wang,et al.  Bismuth Telluride Hexagonal Nanoplatelets and Their Two‐Step Epitaxial Growth. , 2005 .

[16]  Jaroslaw Sotor,et al.  Mode-locking in Er-doped fiber laser based on mechanically exfoliated Sb_2Te_3 saturable absorber , 2014 .

[17]  N. J. Smith,et al.  Sideband generation through perturbations to the average soliton model , 1992 .

[18]  F. Kärtner,et al.  Semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAM's) for femtosecond to nanosecond pulse generation in solid-state lasers , 1996 .

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

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

[21]  P. Roushan,et al.  p -type Bi 2 Se 3 for topological insulator and low-temperature thermoelectric applications , 2009 .

[22]  X. Qi,et al.  Topological insulators and superconductors , 2010, 1008.2026.

[23]  Xiao-Liang Qi,et al.  Topological field theory of time-reversal invariant insulators , 2008, 0802.3537.

[24]  Huai-jin Zhang,et al.  Topological insulator as an optical modulator for pulsed solid‐state lasers , 2013 .

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

[26]  A. Ferrari,et al.  Ultrafast lasers mode-locked by nanotubes and graphene , 2012 .

[27]  Zhengqian Luo,et al.  1.06 μm Q-switched ytterbium-doped fiber laser using few-layer topological insulator Bi₂Se₃ as a saturable absorber. , 2013, Optics express.

[28]  Joonhoi Koo,et al.  A Q-switched, mode-locked fiber laser using a graphene oxide-based polarization sensitive saturable absorber , 2013 .

[29]  C. Kane,et al.  Topological Insulators , 2019, Electromagnetic Anisotropy and Bianisotropy.

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

[31]  Shou-Cheng Zhang,et al.  Quantum Spin Hall Effect and Topological Phase Transition in HgTe Quantum Wells , 2006, Science.

[32]  Zheng Wang,et al.  Observation of unidirectional backscattering-immune topological electromagnetic states , 2009, Nature.

[33]  D. Hsieh,et al.  A topological Dirac insulator in a quantum spin Hall phase , 2008, Nature.

[34]  S. Yamashita,et al.  A Tutorial on Nonlinear Photonic Applications of Carbon Nanotube and Graphene , 2012, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[35]  Kwanil Lee,et al.  Mode-locked pulse generation from an all-fiberized, Tm-Ho-codoped fiber laser incorporating a graphene oxide-deposited side-polished fiber. , 2013, Optics express.