Ultrafast erbium-doped fiber laser mode-locked with a black phosphorus saturable absorber. (18th August 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ahmed, M H M; Latiff, A A; Arof, H; Harun, S W
• Is Part Of: Laser physics letters. Volume 13:Number 9(2016:Sep.)
• Publication Date: 2016-08-18
• Subjects: fiber lasers -- optical materials -- mode-locking; Lasers -- Periodicals; Physics -- Periodicals; 621.366
• DOI: 10.1088/1612-2011/13/9/095104
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1612-2011

Abstract

Abstract: We experimentally demonstrate a passive mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) using a multi-layer black phosphorus saturable absorber (BPSA). The BPSA is fabricated by mechanically exfoliating a BP crystal and sticking the acquired BP flakes onto scotch tape. A small piece of the tape is then placed between two ferrules and integrated into an EDFL cavity to achieve a self-started soliton mode-locked pulse operation at 1560.7 nm wavelength. The 3 dB bandwidth, pulse width, and repetition rate of the laser are 6.4 nm, 570 fs, and 6.88 MHz, respectively. The average output power is 5.1 mW at pump power of 140 mW and thus, the pulse energy and peak power are estimated at 0.74 nJ and 1.22 kW, respectively. The BPSA was constructed in a simple fabrication process and has a modulation depth of 7% to successfully produce the stable mode-locked fiber laser.