Passive Q switching of Er-Yb fiber laser with semiconductor saturable absorber

Passively Q-switched and mode-locked erbium-doped fiber lasers based on tellurene nanosheets as saturable absorber

Various two-dimensional (2D) materials show unique optical properties and excellent performance in acting as saturable absorber (SA) for demonstrating all-fiber ultra-fast lasers. Tellurene, as a new-fashioned few-layer 2D monoelemental material, was designed as an excellent saturable absorber to achieve Q-switched and mode-locked operations within erbium-doped fiber (EDF) lasers in our experiment. High-quality tellurene-based SA with a modulation depth of 0.97% was obtained by blending few-layer tellurene nanosheet solution prepared by liquid phase exfoliation method and the polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) solution. Inserting the SA into the EDF laser cavity by sandwiching the tellurene-PVA film between two fiber ferrules, either the passively Q-switched or the passively mode-locked operations can be obtained. The repetition rate varies from 15.92 to 47.61 kHz, and the pulse duration decreases from 8.915 to 5.196 µs in the passively Q-switched operation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration focusing on the modulation application of tellurene in designing Q-switched pulsed laser operations. Additionally, mode-locked operations were also achieved by adjusting the polarization state. The obtained results fully indicate that tellurene can be developed as an efficient SA for pulsed fiber lasers.

Sub-hundred nanosecond pulse generation from a black phosphorus Q-switched Er-doped fiber laser

Black phosphorus (BP), a prosperous two-dimensional optoelectronic material, has been deeply developed for various optoelectronics applications. Here, we demonstrate a sub-hundred nanosecond passively Q-switched Er-doped all-fiber laser with BP as the saturable absorber (SA). The BP-SA is fabricated by a controllable optical deposition technique. To achieve the sub-hundred nanosecond Q-switching output, we deliberately enlarge the modulation depth of the BP-SA by suitably increasing the time and laser power of the optical deposition and shortening the laser cavity length with an integrated multifunctional component. A stable Q-switched pulse train was obtained with a pulse duration as narrow as 91 ns, and the Q-switched lasing characteristics based on the BP-SA have also been investigated and discussed. The experimental results indicate that the BP material can be employed as an effective SA for the nanosecond pulse generation.

Thickness-dependent nonlinear optical properties of CsPbBr3 perovskite nanosheets

Halide perovskite has attracted significant attention because of excellent optical properties. Here, we study the optical properties of CsPbBr₃ perovskite nanosheets and observe that the nonlinear optical properties can be tuned by the thickness. The photoluminescence (PL) properties and nonlinear absorption effects induced by saturation absorption (SA) and two-photon absorption (TPA) in CsPbBr₃ nanosheets with different thicknesses (from 104.6 to 195.4 nm) have been studied. The PL intensity increases nearly three times with changing from the thinnest one to the thinnest under the same excitation condition. Moreover, the same phenomenon takes place no matter when SA or TPA effects happen. The PL lifetime (τ) varies inversely with the thickness. When SA happens, τ decreases from 11.54 to 9.43 ns while when TPA happens new decay channels emerge with the increase of the thickness. Besides, both saturation intensity (I_sat) and the modulation depth are proportional to the thickness (I_sat rises from 3.12 to 4.79  GW/cm², the modulation depth increases from 18.6% to 32.3%), while the TPA coefficient (β) is inversely proportional with the thickness (decreases from 10.94 to 4.73  cm/GW). In addition, quantum yields and thicknesses are in the direct ratio. This Letter advocates great promise for nonlinear optical property related photonics devices.

Room-temperature subnanosecond waveguide lasers in Nd:YVO4 Q-switched by phase-change VO2: A comparison with 2D materials

We report on room-temperature subnanosecond waveguide laser operation at 1064 nm in a Nd:YVO₄ crystal waveguide through Q-switching of phase-change nanomaterial vanadium dioxide (VO₂). The unique feature of VO₂ nanomaterial from the insulating to metallic phases offers low-saturation-intensity nonlinear absorptions of light for subnanosecond pulse generation. The low-loss waveguide is fabricated by using the femtosecond laser writing with depressed cladding geometry. Under optical pump at 808 nm, efficient pulsed laser has been achieved in the Nd:YVO₄ waveguide, reaching minimum pulse duration of 690 ps and maximum output average power of 66.7 mW. To compare the Q-switched laser performances by VO₂ saturable absorber with those based on two-dimensional materials, the 1064-nm laser pulses have been realized in the same waveguide platform with either graphene or transition metal dichalcogenide (in this work, WS₂) coated mirror. The results on 2D material Q-switched waveguide lasers have shown that the shortest pulses are with 22-ns duration, whilst the maximum output average powers reach ~161.9 mW. This work shows the obvious difference on the lasing properties based on phase-change material and 2D materials, and suggests potential applications of VO₂ as low-cost saturable absorber for subnanosecond laser generation.

Passively Q-switched nanosecond erbium-doped fiber laser with MoS(2) saturable absorber

Passively Q-switched nanosecond pulsed erbium-doped fiber laser based on MoS(2) saturable absorber (SA) is experimentally demonstrated. The high quality MoS(2) SA deposited on the broadband high-reflectivity mirror with a large modulation depth of 9% was prepared by pulsed laser deposition method. By inserting the MoS(2) SA into an erbium-doped fiber laser, stable Q-switched operation can be achieved with the shortest pulse width of 660 ns, the maximum pulse energy up to 152 nJ and pulse repetition rates varying from 116 to 131 kHz. The experimental results further verify that MoS(2) possesses the potential advantage for stable Q-switched pulse generation at 1.5 μm.

Passively Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser using evanescent field interaction with gold-nanosphere based saturable absorber

We demonstrate an all-fiber passively Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) using a gold-nanosphere (GNS) based saturable absorber (SA) with evanescent field interaction. Using the interaction of evanescent field for fabricating SAs, long nonlinear interaction length of evanescent wave and GNSs can be achieved. The GNSs are synthesized from mixing solution of chloroauricacid (HAuCl4) and sodium citrate by the heating effects of the microfiber's evanescent field radiation. The proposed passively Q-switched EDFL could give output pulses at 1562 nm with pulse width of 1.78 μs, a repetition rate of 58.1 kHz, a pulse energy of 133 nJ and a output power of 7.7 mW when pumped by a 980 nm laser diode of 237 mW.

Guided continuous-wave and graphene-based Q-switched lasers in carbon ion irradiated Nd:YAG ceramic channel waveguide

We demonstrate the lasing performance in the Nd:YAG ceramic channel waveguide produced by the carbon ion irradiation, including the continuous-wave (cw) and graphene Q-switched configurations. The highest slope efficiency of 56% and the lowest threshold of 40 mW have been obtained for the cw waveguide laser. With graphene as a saturable absorber, the Q-switched laser produces stable pulses with 57 ns pulse duration and 77 nJ pulse energy, respectively. Under the variation of the pumping power, the repetition of the pulse laser could be modified from 1.5 MHz to 4.1 MHz.

Passively Q-switched microchip Er, Yb:YAl3(BO3)4 diode-pumped laser

We report, for the first time to our knowledge, a diode-pumped cw and passively Q-switched microchip Er, Yb:YAl(3)(BO(3))(4) laser. A maximal output power of 800 mW at 1602 nm in the cw regime was obtained at an absorbed pump power of 7.7 W. By using Co(2+):MgAl(2)O(4) as a saturable absorber, a TEM(00)-mode Q-switched average output power of 315 mW was demonstrated at 1522 nm, with pulse duration of 5 ns and pulse energy of 5.25 μJ at a repetition rate of 60 kHz.

Tunable graphene Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser with suppressed self-mode locking effect

Self-mode locking effect in a wideband tunable graphene-based passively Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser has been observed experimentally. Q-switching is achieved by using graphene as a saturable absorber, while a tunable bandpass filter with a narrow bandwidth is used to obtain wideband tunability. We propose to suppress the modulation on each pulse from self-mode locking by introducing three subring resonators constructed with three 3 dB couplers into the laser ring cavity. Moreover, the laser output characteristics with respect to pump power are studied in detail. A stable Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser with a tunable range from 1522 nm to 1568 nm is demonstrated experimentally.

Diode-pumped passively mode-locked 1,342 nm Nd:YVO4 laser with an AlGaInAs quantum-well saturable absorber

We demonstrate what we believe to be the first use of AlGaInAs quantum wells (QWs) as a saturable absorber for a diode-pumped passively mode locked Nd:YVO(4) laser at 1342 nm. The QWs are grown on a Fe-doped InP substrate that is transparent at lasing wavelength. At an incident pump power of 13.5 W an average output power of 1.05 W with a continuous mode-locked pulse duration of 26.4 ps at a repetition rate of 152 MHz was generated.