A compact graphene Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser using optical circulator and tunable fiber Bragg grating

We demonstrate a passively Q-switched tunable erbium-doped fiber laser(EDFL)based on graphene as a saturable absorber(SA).A three-port optical circulator(OC)and a strain-induced tunable fiber Bragg grating(TFBG)are used as the two end mirrors in an all-fiber linear cavity.The Q-switched EDFL has a low pump threshold of 23.8 mW.The pulse repetition rate of the fiber laser can be widely changed from 9.3 kHz to 69.7 kHz by increasing the pump power from23.8 mW to 219.9 mW.The minimum pulse duration is 1.7μs and the highest pulse energy is 25.4 nJ.The emission wavelength of the laser can be tuned from 1560.43 nm to 1566.27 nm by changing the central wavelength of the straininduced TFBG.     

Cadmium Selenide Polymer Microfiber Saturable Absorber for Q-Switched Fiber Laser Applications

We demonstrate the generation of a Q-switching pulse train in an erbium-doped fiber laser(EDFL) cavity using a newly developed cadmium selenide(CdSe) based saturable absorber(SA). The SA is obtained by embedding CdSe nanomaterials into a polymethyl methacrylate(PMMA) microfiber. It is incorporated into an EDFL cavity to generate a Q-switched laser operating at 1533.6 nm. The repetition rates of the produced pulse train are tunable within 37-64 kHz as the pump power is varied from 34 mW to 74 mW. The corresponding pulse width reduces from 7.96μs to 4.84μs, and the maximum pulse energy of 1.16 nJ is obtained at the pump power of74 mW.     

Q-switched Er-doped fiber laser with low pumping threshold using graphene saturable absorber

We propose a Q-switched Er-doped fiber laser(EDFL) with a threshold pumping power as low as 7.4 mW, and demonstrate using graphene polyvinyl alcohol(PVA) thin film as a passive saturable absorber(SA). The SA is fabricated from graphene flakes, which is synthesized by electrochemical exfoliation of graphite at room temperature in 1% sodium dodecyl sulfate aqueous solution. The flakes are mixed with PVA solution to produce a thin film, which is then sandwiched between two ferrules to form a SA and integrated in the EDFL ring cavity to generate a stable Q-switched pulse train. The pulse train operates at 1560 nm with a threshold pump power of 7.4 mW. At maximum 1480 nm pump power of 33.0 mW, the EDFL generates an optical pulse train with a repetition rate of 27.0 kHz and pulse width of 3.56 μs. The maximum pulse energy of 39.4 nJ is obtained at a pump power of 14.9 mW. This laser can be used as a simple and low-cost light source for metrology, environmental sensing, and biomedical diagnostics.     

Q-Switched Raman Fiber Laser with Molybdenum Disulfide-Based Passive Saturable Absorber

We demonstrate a Q-switched Raman fiber laser using molybdenum disulfide(MoS_2) as a saturable absorber(SA).The SA is assembled by depositing a mechanically exfoliated MoS_2 onto a fiber ferrule facet before it is matched with another clean ferrule via a connector.It is inserted in a Raman fiber laser cavity with a total cavity length of about 8 km to generate a Q-switching pulse train operating at 1560.2 nm.A 7.7-km-long dispersion compensating fiber with 584 ps·nm~(-1)km~(-1) of dispersion is used as a nonlinear gain medium.As the pump power is increased from 395 mW to 422 mW,the repetition rate of the Q-switching pulses can be increased from 132.7 to137.4kHz while the pulse width is concurrently decreased from 3.35μs to 3.03μs.The maximum pulse energy of 54.3nJ is obtained at the maximum pump power of 422 mW.These results show that the mechanically exfoliated MoS_2 SA has a great potential to be used for puise generation in Raman fiber laser systems.     

Zinc-oxide nanoparticle-based saturable absorber deposited by simple evaporation technique for Q-switched fiber laser

A Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser(EDFL) incorporating zinc-oxide(ZnO) nanoparticles-based saturable absorber(SA) is proposed and demonstrated. To form the SA, the ZnO nanoparticles, which are originally in the powder form, are first dissolved in ethanol and subsequently deposited onto the surface of fiber ferrule by using the adhesion effect with the evaporation technique. By integrating the ZnO nanoparticle-based SA into a laser cavity of an EDFL, a self-started and stable Q-switching is achieved at a low threshold power of 20.24 mW. As the pump power is increased, the pulse repetition rate is tunable from 10.34 kHz to 25.59 kHz while pulse duration decreases from 21.39 μs to 3.65 μs. Additionally,this Q-switched laser has a maximum energy per pulse of 19.34 nJ and an average output power of 0.46 mW. These results indicate the feasibility and functionality of the ZnO nanoparticles-based SA for Q-switched generation, which offers the flexibility and easy integration of the SA into a ring laser cavity.     

Q-switched ytterbium doped carbon nanotubes fiber laser using multi-walled saturable absorber

A Q-switched ytterbium-doped fiber laser （YDFL） is proposed and demonstrated using a newly developed multi-walled carbon nanotubes polyethylene oxide （MWCNTs-PEO） film as a passive saturable absorber （SA）. The saturable absorber is prepared by mixing the MWCNTs homogeneous solution into a dilute PEO polymer solution before it is left to dry at room temperature to produce thin film. Then the film is sandwiched between two FC/PC fiber connectors and integrated into the laser cavity for Q-switching pulse generation. The laser generates a stable pulse operating at wavelength of 1060.2 nm with a threshold pump power of 53.43 mW. The YDFL generates a stable pulse train with repetition rates ranging from 7.92 to 24.27 kHz by varying 980-nm pump power from 53.42 to 65.72 mW. At 59.55-mW pump power, the lowest pulse width and the highest pulse energy are obtained at 12.18 μs and 143.5 n J, respectively.     

Zinc Oxide-Based Q-Switched Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser

We demonstrate a Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser(EDFL) using a newly developed zinc oxide-(ZnO) based saturable absorber(SA). The SA is fabricated by embedding a prepared ZnO powder into a poly(vinyl alcohol)film. A small piece of the film is then sandwiched between two fiber ferrules and is incorporated in an EDFL cavity for generating a stable Q-switching pulse train. The EDFL operates at 1560.4 nm with a pump power threshold of 11.8 mW, a pulse repetition rate tunable from 22.79 to 61.43 kHz, and the smallest pulse width of 7.00 μs. The Q-switching pulse shows no spectral modulation with a peak-to-pedestal ratio of 62 dB indicating the high stability of the laser. These results show that the ZnO powder has a great potential to be used for pulsed laser applications.     

Q-switched ytterbium doped fiber laser using multi-walled carbon nanotubes saturable absorber

A Q-switched ytterbium-doped fiber laser(YDFL)is proposed and demonstrated using a newly developed multi-walled carbon nanotubes polyethylene oxide(MWCNTs-PEO)film as a passive saturable absorber(SA).The saturable absorber is prepared by mixing the MWCNTs homogeneous solution into a dilute PEO polymer solution before it is left to dry at room temperature to produce thin film.Then the film is sandwiched between two FC/PC fiber connectors and integrated into the laser cavity for Q-switching pulse generation.The laser generates a stable pulse operating at wavelength of 1060.2 nm with a threshold pump power of 53.43 mW.The YDFL generates a stable pulse train with repetition rates ranging from7.92 to 24.27 kHz by varying 980-nm pump power from 53.42 to 65.72 mW.At 59.55-mW pump power,the lowest pulse width and the highest pulse energy are obtained at 12.18μs and 143.5 nJ,respectively.     

Generation of Q-Switched Mode-Locked Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser Operating in Dark Regime

We demonstrate a stable Q-switched mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser(EDFL) operating in dark regime based on the nonlinear polarization rotation technique.The EDFL produces a pulse train where the Q-switching envelope is formed by multiple dark pulses.The repetition rate of the Q-switched envelope can be increased from 0.96 kHz to 3.26 kHz,whereas the pulse width reduces from 211 μs to 86 μs.The highest pulse of 479 nJ is obtained at the pump power of 55 mW.It is also observed that the dark pulses inside the Q-switching envelope consist of two parts:square and trailing dark pulses.The shortest pulse width of the dark square pulse is obtained at 40.5μs when the pump power is fixed at 145 mW.The repetition rate of trailing dark pulses can be increased from 27.62 kHz to 50 kHz as the pump power increases from 55 mW to 145 mW.     

Passively Q-Switched EDFL Using a Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube Polymer Composite Based on a Saturable Absorber

A stable passive Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser （EDFL） operating at 1563.5 nm is demonstrated by using a multi-walled carbon nanotube （MWCNT） polymer composite film based saturable absorber for the first time. The composite is prepared by mixing the MWCNTs homogeneous solution into a dilute PEO polymer solution before it is left to dry at room temperature to produce thin film. Then the film is sandwiched between two FC/PC fiber connectors and is integrated into the laser cavity for Q-switching pulse generation. The EDFL generates a stable pulse train with repetition rates ranging from 4.5 kHz to 20.0 kHz by varying the 1480 nm pump power from 35 mW to 53 mW. At the 53 mW pump power, the pulse width and pulse energy are 8.8 μs and 15.3 nJ, respectively.     

Dual-Wavelength Passively Q-Switched Ytterbium-Doped Fiber Laser Based on Aluminum Oxide Nanoparticle Saturable Absorbers

We report on generation of a dual-wavelength, all-fiber, passively Q-switched ytterbium-doped fiber laser using aluminum oxide nanoparticle(Al_2 O_3-NP) thin flm. A thin film of Al_2 O_3 was prepared by embedding Al_2 O_3-NPs into a polyvinyl alcohol(PVA) as a host polymer, and then inserted between two fiber ferrules to act as a saturable absorber(SA).By incorporating the Al_2 O_3-PVA SA into the laser cavity,a stable dual-wavelength pulse output centered at 1050 and 1060.7 nm is observed at threshold pump power of 80 mW. As the pump power is gradually increased from 80 to 300 mW, the repetition rate of the generated pulse increases from 16.23 to 59 kHz, while the pulse width decreases from 19 to 6μs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration for this type of SA operating in the 1 μm region.     

Passive Q-switching in an erbium-doped fiber laser using tungsten sulphoselenide as a saturable absorber

A highly stable Q-switched laser incorporating a mechanically exfoliated tungsten sulphoselenide (WSSe) thin sheet saturable absorber (SA) is proposed and demonstrated. The SA assembly, formed by sandwiching a thin WSSe sheet between two fiber ferrules within the erbium-doped fiber laser, is used to effectively modulate the laser cavity losses. The WSSe-based SA has a saturation intensity of ~0.006 MW∕cm~2 and a modulation depth of 7.8%, giving an optimum Q-switched laser output with a maximum repetition rate of 61.81 kHz and a minimum pulse width of 2.6 μs. The laser's highest output power of 0.45 mW and highest pulse energy of 7.31 nJ are achieved at the maximum pump power of 280.5 mW. The tunability of the cavity's output at the maximum pump power is analyzed with a C-band tunable bandpass filter, giving a broad tunable range of ~40 nm, from 1530 nm to 1570 nm. The output performance of the tunable Q-switched laser correlates well with the gain spectrum of erbium-doped fibers, with the shift in the gain profile as a result of the saturated SA.     

Q-Switched Ytterbium-Doped Fiber Laser Using Black Phosphorus as Saturable Absorber

We demonstrate a Q-switched ytterbium-doped fiber laser(YDFL) using a newly developed multi-layer black phosphorous(BP) saturable absorber(SA).The BP SA is prepared by mechanically exfoliating a BP crystal and sticking the acquired BP flakes onto a scotch tape.A small piece of the tape is then placed between two ferrules and incorporated in a YDFL cavity to achieve a stable Q-switched operation in a 1.0 μm region.The laser has a pump threshold of 55.1 mW,a puise repetition rate that is tunable from 8.2 to 32.9kHz,and the narrowest pulse width of 10.8 μs.The highest pulse energy of 328 nJ is achieved at the pump power of 97.6mW.Our results show that multi-layer BP is a promising SA for Q-switching laser operation.     

Q-switched pulse generation from an all-fiber distributed Bragg reflector laser using graphene as saturable absorber

A Q-switched distributed Bragg reflector fiber laser using a graphene passive saturable absorber is proposed in a cavity consisting of a fiber Bragg grating and Faraday rotator mirror as end mirrors, together with a highly doped erbium-doped fiber as a gain source. The laser has a Q-switched threshold of about 28 mW and a tunable repetition rate of 10.4-18.0 kHz with varying pump power. The shortest pulse width obtained from the system is 3.7 its, with a maximum pulse energy and peak power of 22.2 nJ and 3.4 mW, respectively.     

Laser-diode-pumped zigzag oscillator power slab Nd：YAG master amplifier

A Q-switched distributed Bragg reflector fiber laser using a graphene passive saturable absorber is proposed in a cavity consisting of a fiber Bragg grating and Faraday rotator mirror as end mirrors, together with a highly doped erbium-doped fiber as a gain source. The laser has a Q-switched threshold of about 28 mW and a tunable repetition rate of 10.4-18.0 kHz with varying pump power. The shortest pulse width obtained from the system is 3.7 μs, with a maximum pulse energy and peak power of 22.2 nJ and 3.4 mW, respectively.     

High-energy pulse generation using Yb-doped Q-switched fiber laser based on single-walled carbon nanotubes

An all-fiber laser using a single-walled carbon nanotube(SWCNT) as the saturable absorber(SA) for Q-switched operation in the 1031 nm region is demonstrated in this work. A lasing threshold as low as 17 mW was realized for continuous wave operation. By further increasing the pump power, stable Q-switched pulse trains are obtained when the pump power ranges from 38 mW to 125 mW, corresponding to repetition rate varying from 40.84 kHz to 66.24 kHz, the pulse width from 2.0 μs to 1.0 μs,and the highest single pulse energy of 40.6 nJ respectively.     

A Mode-Locked Soliton Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser with a Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Poly-Ethylene Oxide Film Saturable Absorber

We present a simple, compact and low-cost mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser （EDFL） using single-wMled carbon nanotubes （SWCNTs） embedded in a poly-ethylene oxide （PEO） thin film as a passive saturable absorber. The film is fabricated by using a prepared homogeneous SWCNT solution, which is mixed with a diluted PEO solution and cast onto a glass Petri dish to form, by evaporation, a thin film. The 50 μm-thick film is sandwiched between two fiber connectors to construct a saturable absorber, which is then integrated in an EDFL cavity to generate self-started stable soliton pulses operating at 1560.8nm. The soliton pulse starts to lase at a pump power threshold of 12.3mW with a repetition rate of 11.21MHz, a pulse width of 1.02ps, an average output power of 0.65 mW and a pulse energy of 57.98pJ.     

CsPbBr_3 nanocrystal for mode-locking Tm-doped fiber laser

CsPbBr_3 nanocrystal is used as the saturable absorber(SA) for mode-locking Tm-doped fiber laser in a ring fiber cavity.The modulation depth, saturable intensity, and non-saturable loss of the fabricated SA are 14.1%, 2.5 MW/cm~2,and 5.9%, respectively.In the mode-locking operation, the mode-locked pulse train has a repetition rate of 16.6 MHz with pulse width of 24.2 ps.The laser wavelength is centered at 1992.9 nm with 3-dB spectrum width of 2.5 nm.The maximum output power is 110 mW with slope efficiency of 7.1%.Our experiment shows that CsPbBr_3 nanocrystal can be used as an efficient SA in the 2-μm wavelength region.     

Wavelength tunable passively Q-switched Yb-doped double-clad f iber laser with graphene grown on SiC

A passively Q-switched tunable Yb-doped double-clad fiber laser is demonstrated with graphene epitaxially grown on SiC.The spectral tuning of the Q-switched fiber laser is implemented by rotating a quartz plate filter inside the cavity.The central wavelength of the fiber laser can be continuously tuned from 1038.54 to 1056.22 nm.The maximum pulse energy of 0.65 μJ is obtained at the pump power of 4.08 W,and the corresponding pulse duration and average output power are 1.60 μs and 35 mW,respectively.     

A Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser based on ZrS_2 as a saturable absorber

A passively Q-switched erbium-doped fiber(EDF) laser is proposed and demonstrated utilizing a zirconium disulfide(ZrS_2)-based saturable absorber(SA). ZrS_2 nanosheets are prepared, whose modulation depth,saturation intensity, and nonsaturable absorbance are measured to be 14.7%, 0.34 MW/cm~2, and 17.4%, respectively. Then, a Q-switched EDF laser is implemented by the ZrS_2-SA. The pulse repetition rate varies from 40.65 to 87.1 k Hz when the pump power changes from 55 to 345 mW. The shortest pulse width is 1.49 μs with pulse energy of 33.5 nJ. As far as we know, this is the shortest pulse width obtained by a ZrS_2-SA so far.