Mode-locked 2μm fiber laser with a multi-walled carbon nanotube as a saturable absorber
We propose and demonstrate a passively mode-locked fiber laser operating at 1951.8 nm using a commercial thulium-doped fiber (TDF) laser, a homemade double-clad thulium–ytterbium co-doped fiber (TYDF) as the gain media, and a multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) based saturable absorber (SA). We p...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Chinese Optics Letters
2015
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/43490/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/43490/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/43490/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/43490/1/Mode-locked_2_%CE%BCm_fiber_laser_with_a_multi-walled_carbon_nanotube_as_a_saturable_absorber_%28March_10%2C_2015_%29.pdf |
| Summary: | We propose and demonstrate a passively mode-locked fiber laser operating at 1951.8 nm using a commercial
thulium-doped fiber (TDF) laser, a homemade double-clad thulium–ytterbium co-doped fiber (TYDF)
as the gain media, and a multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) based saturable absorber (SA). We prepare
the MWCNT composite by mixing a homogeneous solution of MWCNTs with a diluted polyvinyl alcohol
(PVA) polymer solution and then drying it at room temperature to form a film. The film is placed between
two fiber connectors as a SA before it is integrated into a laser ring cavity. The cavity consists of a 2 m long
TDF pumped by a 800 nm laser diode and a 15 m long homemade TYDF pumped by a 905 nm multimode laser
diode. A stable mode-locking pulse with a repetition rate of 34.6 MHz and a pulse width of 10.79 ps is obtained
when the 905 nm multimode pump power reaches 1.8–2.2 W, while the single-mode 800 nm pump power is fixed
at 141.5 mW at all times. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported mode-locked fiber laser using a
MWCNT-based SA. |
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