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.     

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.     

A strategy for the synthesis of mesostructured metal oxides with lower oxidation states

A detailed study on the pseudomorphic conversion of ordered mesoporous Co(3)O(4) and ferrihydrite into CoO and Fe(3)O(4), respectively, by using alcohol/water vapor as a gentle reducing agent is described. The reduction conditions for the transformation were optimized. In addition, the first one-pot synthesis of mesostructured CoO by using nanocasting with cubic ordered silica as a hard template is demonstrated.     

Multi-wavelength Brillouin fiber laser generation using dual-pass approach

A simple and compact multi-wavelength tunable Brillouin fiber laser (BFL) in conjunction with dual-pass approach is proposed and experimentally compared with the output of a conventional single ring cavity architecture. This BFL source is demonstrated using 10 km long non-zero dispersion shifted fiber (NZ-DSF) as a Brillouin gain medium. By single ring cavity configuration, odd-order Brillouin Stokes lines appear in the backward direction with the line spacing 0.16 nm (∼20 GHz) between each two consecutive waves. However, this single ring cavity in conjunction with dual-pass configuration is able to generate Brillouin Stokes lines with 0.08 nm spacing by providing bi-directional oscillations of Brillouin waves in both forward and backward directions. With a Brillouin pump power of 15.3 dBm, approximately up to 17 Brillouin Stokes lines are generated which is tunable over 40 nm tuning range.     

Effect of doped fiber length on the stretch pulses of a mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser

A passively self-starting mode-locked fiber ring laser is demonstrated using a highly concentrated Erbium doped fiber (EDF) with a saturable absorber. The effect of EDF length on the performance of the laser is investigated. Stable stretched pulses are obtained at wavelength region of 1560nm with a repetition rate ranging from 10.1 to 12.1 MHz and a pulse width stretching from 0.52 to 0.75 ps as the EDF length is reduced from 4.5 to 1.5 m. The repetition rate goes higher as the cavity length decreases when a shorter EDF is used but the pulse width reduces as the EDF length increases since the total group velocity dispersion (GVD) in the cavity is close to zero. The article is published in the original.     

Graphene-based Q-switched pulsed fiber laser in a linear configuration

A pulsed laser system is realized with graphene employed as a Q-switch.The graphene is exfoliated from its solution using an optical deposition and the optical tweezer effect.A fiber ferrule that already has the graphene deposited on it is inserted into an erbium-ytterbium laser(EYL)system with linear cavity configuration.We successfully demonstrate a pulsed EYL with a pulse duration of approximately 5.9μs and a repetition rate of 20.0 kHz.     

High power dual-wavelength tunable fiber laser in linear and ring cavity configurations

We describe and compare the performances of two crucial configurations for a tunable dual-wavelength fiber laser, namely, the linear and ring configurations. The performances of these two cavities and the tunability in the dual-wavelength output varied from 0.8 to 11.9 nm are characterized. The ring cavity provides a better performance, achieving an average output power of 0.5 dBm, with a power fluctuation of only 1.1 dB and a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 66 dB. Moreover, the ring cavity has minimal or no background amplified spontaneous emission (ASE).     

Catalytic Activity and Morphological Properties of Ni/MgO Catalysts for the Oxidative Coupling of Methane

The catalytic activity of Ni/MgO catalysts was studied for the oxidative coupling of methane (OCM). The catalysts were characterized using transmission electron microscope (TEM) and XRD. The increase in C2+ selectivity of Ni/MgO was attributed to the presence of bulk dislocations and MgNiO₂ phase. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

High gain L-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier with two-stage double-pass configuration

An experiment on gain enhancement in the long wavelength band erbium-doped fiber amplifier (L-band EDFA) is demonstrated using dual forward pumping scheme in double-pass system. Compared to a single-stage single-pass scheme, the small signal gain for 1580 nm signal can be improved by 13.5 dB. However, a noise figure penalty of 2.9 dB was obtained due to the backward C-band ASE from second stage and the already amplified signal from the first pass that extracting energy from the forward C-band ASE. The maximum gain improvement of 13.7 dB was obtained at a signal wavelength of 1588 nm while signal and total pump powers were fixed at -30 dBm and 92 mW, respectively.     

Nanosecond Pulses Generation with Samarium Oxide Film Saturable Absorber

Nanosecond pulse generation is demonstrated in a mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser(EDFL) utilizing a samarium oxide(Sm_2O_3) film. The Sm_2O_3 film exhibits a modulation depth of 33%, which is suitable for modelocking operation. The passively pulsed EDFL operates stably at 1569.8 nm within a pumping power from 109 to 146 m W. The train of generated output pulses has a pulse width of 356 nm repeated at a fundamental frequency of 0.97 MHz. The average output power of 3.91 m W is obtained at a pump power of 146 m W, corresponding to 4.0 nJ pulse energy. The experimental result indicates that the proposed Sm_2O_3 saturable absorber is viable for the construction of a flexible and reliably stable mode-locked pulsed fiber laser operating in the 1.5 m region.