Femtosecond harmonic mode-locking of a fiber laser at 3.27 GHz using a bulk-like, MoSe2-based saturable absorber.

We experimentally demonstrate the use of a bulk-like, MoSe2-based saturable absorber (SA) as a passive harmonic mode-locker for the production of femtosecond pulses from a fiber laser at a repetition rate of 3.27 GHz. By incorporating a bulk-like, MoSe2/PVA-composite-deposited side-polished fiber as an SA within an erbium-doped-fiber-ring cavity, mode-locked pulses with a temporal width of 737 fs to 798 fs can be readily obtained at various harmonic frequencies. The fundamental resonance frequency and the maximum harmonic-resonance frequency are 15.38 MHz and 3.27 GHz (212th harmonic), respectively. The temporal and spectral characteristics of the output pulses are systematically investigated as a function of the pump power. The output pulses exhibited Gaussian-temporal shapes irrespective of the harmonic order, and even when their spectra possessed hyperbolic-secant shapes. The saturable absorption and harmonic-mode-locking performance of our prepared SA are compared with those of previously demonstrated SAs that are based on other transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). To the best of the authors' knowledge, the repetition rate of 3.27 GHz is the highest frequency that has ever been demonstrated regarding the production of femtosecond pulses from a fiber laser that is based on SA-induced passive harmonic mode-locking.

[1]  F. Amrani,et al.  Passively mode-locked erbium-doped double-clad fiber laser operating at the 322nd harmonic. , 2009, Optics letters.

[2]  Junsu Lee,et al.  Mode-locked, 1.94-μm, all-fiberized laser using WS₂ based evanescent field interaction. , 2015, Optics express.

[3]  Harmonic mode-locking in a fiber laser through continuous external optical injection , 2014 .

[4]  Dan Zhao,et al.  Gold nanorods as saturable absorbers for all-fiber passively Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser , 2013 .

[5]  Junsu Lee,et al.  Harmonically mode-locked femtosecond fiber laser using non-uniform, WS2-particle deposited side-polished fiber , 2016 .

[6]  Alioune Niang,et al.  Nature of soliton interaction in fiber lasers with continuous external optical injection , 2014 .

[7]  Junsu Lee,et al.  Numerical study on the minimum modulation depth of a saturable absorber for stable fiber laser mode locking , 2015 .

[8]  S. Wen,et al.  Molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) as a broadband saturable absorber for ultra-fast photonics. , 2014, Optics express.

[9]  M. Salhi,et al.  1.61 μm high-order passive harmonic mode locking in a fiber laser based on graphene saturable absorber. , 2014, Optics express.

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

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

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

[13]  Junsu Lee,et al.  Large energy, all-fiberized Q-switched pulse laser using a GNRs/PVA saturable absorber , 2015 .

[14]  K. Bergman,et al.  Broad-band high-repetition-rate source for spectrally sliced WDM , 1999, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[15]  M. Jablonski,et al.  Laser mode locking using a saturable absorber incorporating carbon nanotubes , 2004, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[16]  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.

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

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

[19]  David J. Richardson,et al.  Passive harmonic modelocking of a fibre soliton ring laser , 1993 .

[20]  Zhengqian Luo,et al.  1-, 1.5-, and 2-μm Fiber Lasers Q-Switched by a Broadband Few-Layer MoS2 Saturable Absorber , 2014, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[21]  J. Shmulovich,et al.  Integrated Low-Jitter 400-MHz Femtosecond Waveguide Laser , 2009, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[22]  Junsu Lee,et al.  A femtosecond pulse erbium fiber laser incorporating a saturable absorber based on bulk-structured Bi2Te3 topological insulator. , 2014, Optics express.

[23]  Ursula Keller,et al.  Optical characterization of semiconductor saturable absorbers , 2004 .

[24]  Meng Liu,et al.  Microfiber-based few-layer black phosphorus saturable absorber for ultra-fast fiber laser. , 2015, Optics express.

[25]  Junsu Lee,et al.  Black phosphorus saturable absorber for ultrafast mode‐locked pulse laser via evanescent field interaction , 2015 .

[26]  F. Wise,et al.  Passive harmonic mode-locking of a soliton Yb fiber laser at repetition rates to 1.5 GHz , 2006, 2006 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics and 2006 Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference.

[27]  K Hotate,et al.  Distributed pressure sensor with a mode-locked fiber-ring laser. , 2001, Optics letters.

[28]  Alexey Chernikov,et al.  Measurement of the optical dielectric function of monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides: MoS 2 , Mo S e 2 , WS 2 , and WS e 2 , 2014 .

[29]  T. Carruthers,et al.  10-GHz, 1.3-ps erbium fiber laser employing soliton pulse shortening. , 1996, Optics letters.

[30]  Pawel Kaczmarek,et al.  10 GHz passive harmonic mode-locking in Er–Yb double-clad fiber laser , 2011 .

[31]  A. Okhrimchuk,et al.  11-GHz waveguide Nd:YAG laser CW mode-locked with single-layer graphene , 2015, Scientific Reports.

[32]  Sergei K. Turitsyn,et al.  Passively harmonic mode locked erbium doped fiber soliton laser with carbon nanotubes based saturable absorber , 2012 .

[33]  Zhaoyang Hu,et al.  A stable smoothly wavelength-tunable picosecond pulse generator , 2002, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[34]  P. Ajayan,et al.  Chemical vapor deposition growth of crystalline monolayer MoSe2. , 2014, ACS nano.

[35]  Shuangchen Ruan,et al.  Microfiber-based WS 2 -film saturable absorber for ultra-fast photonics , 2015 .

[36]  Anatoly B. Grudinin,et al.  Passive harmonic mode locking of soliton fiber lasers , 1995 .

[37]  Janna Börner,et al.  Real-time imaging of methane gas leaks using a single-pixel camera. , 2017, Optics express.

[38]  J. Knights,et al.  Transmission spectra of some transition metal dichalcogenides. II. Group VIA: trigonal prismatic coordination , 1972 .

[39]  Junsu Lee,et al.  Femtosecond harmonic mode-locking of a fiber laser based on a bulk-structured Bi(2)Te(3) topological insulator. , 2015, Optics express.

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

[41]  R I Woodward,et al.  Wideband saturable absorption in few-layer molybdenum diselenide (MoSe₂) for Q-switching Yb-, Er- and Tm-doped fiber lasers. , 2015, Optics express.

[42]  Philippe Grelu,et al.  Multi-gigahertz repetition-rate-selectable passive harmonic mode locking of a fiber laser. , 2013, Optics express.

[43]  D. Mao,et al.  Harmonic mode locking of bound-state solitons fiber laser based on MoS(2) saturable absorber. , 2015, Optics express.

[44]  Shuangchen Ruan,et al.  A 2.95 GHz, femtosecond passive harmonic mode-locked fiber laser based on evanescent field interaction with topological insulator film. , 2015, Optics express.

[45]  Grzegorz Soboń,et al.  Investigation on pulse shaping in fiber laser hybrid mode-locked by Sb(2)Te(3) saturable absorber. , 2015, Optics express.

[46]  Jaroslaw Sotor,et al.  Harmonically mode-locked Er-doped fiber laser based on a Sb2Te3 topological insulator saturable absorber , 2014 .

[47]  K. Abramski,et al.  Passive harmonic mode-locking in Er-doped fiber laser based on graphene saturable absorber with repetition rates scalable to 2.22 GHz , 2012 .

[48]  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.

[49]  Shuangchun Wen,et al.  Ytterbium-doped fiber laser passively mode locked by few-layer Molybdenum Disulfide (MoS2) saturable absorber functioned with evanescent field interaction , 2014, Scientific Reports.

[50]  Junsu Lee,et al.  A femtosecond pulse fiber laser at 1935 nm using a bulk-structured Bi2Te3 topological insulator. , 2014, Optics express.

[51]  Meng Liu,et al.  Microfiber-based gold nanorods as saturable absorber for femtosecond pulse generation in a fiber laser , 2014 .

[52]  Reza Khazaeinezhad,et al.  All-fiber Er-doped Q-Switched laser based on Tungsten Disulfide saturable absorber , 2015 .

[53]  Hao Wang,et al.  Q-switched fiber laser based on transition metal dichalcogenides MoS(2), MoSe(2), WS(2), and WSe(2). , 2015, Optics express.

[54]  I H White,et al.  Wideband-tuneable, nanotube mode-locked, fibre laser. , 2008, Nature nanotechnology.

[55]  Jaroslaw Sotor,et al.  Mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser based on evanescent field interaction with Sb2Te3 topological insulator , 2014 .

[56]  Zhengqian Luo,et al.  Nonlinear optical absorption of few-layer molybdenum diselenide (MoSe 2 ) for passively mode-locked soliton fiber laser [Invited] , 2015 .

[57]  R. Yang,et al.  Passively Q-switching induced by gold nanocrystals , 2012 .

[58]  Fabian Rotermund,et al.  300-MHz-repetition-rate, all-fiber, femtosecond laser mode-locked by planar lightwave circuit-based saturable absorber. , 2015, Optics express.

[59]  J. McFerran.  Echelle spectrograph calibration with a frequency comb based on a harmonically mode-locked fiber laser: a proposal. , 2009, Applied optics.

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

[61]  M. Liu,et al.  2 GHz passively harmonic mode-locked fiber laser by a microfiber-based topological insulator saturable absorber. , 2013, Optics letters.

[62]  Jun Wang,et al.  463-MHz fundamental mode-locked fiber laser based on few-layer MoS(2) saturable absorber. , 2015, Optics letters.

[63]  Fabian Rotermund,et al.  Toward higher-order passive harmonic mode-locking of a soliton fiber laser. , 2012, Optics letters.

[64]  Jianlin Zhao,et al.  WS₂ saturable absorber for dissipative soliton mode locking at 1.06 and 1.55 µm. , 2015, Optics express.

[65]  J R Taylor,et al.  Tunable Q-switched fiber laser based on saturable edge-state absorption in few-layer molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂). , 2014, Optics express.

[66]  Wilson Sibbett,et al.  Fundamentally mode-locked, femtosecond waveguide oscillators with multi-gigahertz repetition frequencies up to 15 GHz. , 2013, Optics express.

[67]  Shinji Yamashita,et al.  10 GHz fundamental mode fiber laser using a graphene saturable absorber , 2012 .

[68]  Liangmo Mei,et al.  Broadband Few‐Layer MoS2 Saturable Absorbers , 2014, Advanced materials.

[69]  Andrew D. Ellis,et al.  1.6 ps pulse generation at 40 GHz in phaselocked ring laser incorporating highly nonlinear fibre for application to 160 Gbit/s OTDM networks , 1999 .

[70]  Meng Liu,et al.  Microfiber-based few-layer MoS2 saturable absorber for 2.5 GHz passively harmonic mode-locked fiber laser. , 2014, Optics express.