Arindam Halder

Self-starting harmonic mode-locked Tm-Bi co-doped germanate fiber laser with carbon nanotube-based saturable absorber

We report a ring cavity passively harmonic mode-locked fiber laser using a newly developed thuliumbismuth co-doped fiber (TBF) as a gain medium in conjunction with a carbon nanotube (CNT)-based saturable absorber. The TBF laser generates a third harmonic mode-locked soliton pulse train with a high repetition rate of 50 MHz and a pulse duration of 1.86 ps. The laser operates at 1 901.6 nm with an average power of 6.6 mW, corresponding to a pulse energy of 0.132 nJ, at a 1 552 nm pump power of 723.3 mW.

Highly fluorescent silver nanoclusters in alumina-silica composite optical fiber

An efficient visible fluorescent optical fiber embedded with silver nanoclusters (Ag-NCs) having size ∼1 nm, uniformly distributed in alumina-silica composite core glass, is reported. Fibers are fabricated in a repetitive controlled way through modified chemical vapour deposition process associated with solution doping technique. Fibers are drawn from the transparent preforms by conventional fiber drawing process. Structural characteristics of the doped fibers are studied using transmission electron microscopy and electron probe micro analysis. The oxidation state of Ag within Ag-NCs is investigated by X-ray photo electron spectroscopy. The observed significant fluorescence of the metal clusters in fabricated fibers is correlated with electronic model. The experimentally observed size dependent absorption of the metal clusters in fabricated fibers is explained with the help of reported results calculated by ab-initio density functional theory. These optical fibers may open up an opportunity of realizing tunable wavelength fiber laser without the help of rare earth elements.

Mode-locked 2 mu m 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 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.

Mode-locked thulium-bismuth codoped fiber laser using graphene saturable absorber in ring cavity

We demonstrate mode locking of a thulium-bismuth codoped fiber laser (TBFL) operating at 1901.6 nm, using a graphene-based saturable absorber (SA). In this work, a single layer graphene is mechanically exfoliated using the scotch tape method and directly transferred onto the surface of a fiber pigtail to fabricate the SA. The obtained Raman spectrum characteristic indicates that the graphene on the core surface has a single layer. At 1552 nm pump power of 869 mW, the mode-locked TBFL self starts to generate an optical pulse train with a repetition rate of 16.7 MHz and pulse width of 0.37 ps. This is a simple, low-cost, stable, and convenient laser oscillator for applications where eye-safe and low-photon-energy light sources are required, such as sensing and biomedical diagnostics.

Upconversion luminescence in Tm3+/Yb3+ co-doped double-clad silica fibers under 980 nm cladding pumping

An investigation is reported of the visible and near-infrared upconversions in Tm3+/Yb3+ co-doped double-clad silica fibers (TYDFs) under excitation at 980 nm. The TYDFs used were fabricated using the modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) and solution doping techniques. Three distinct upconversion luminescences were observed at wavelengths of 482, 649 and 816 nm and their intensities found to increase with Yb3+ concentration. The intensity of blue and red fluorescence bands at 482 and 649 nm were found to be the highest with LTY-8 fiber, which had Tm3+ and Yb3+ concentrations of 5.6 × 1019 and 15.5 × 1019 ions/cc, respectively. The upconversion luminescence intensity was also observed to decrease with an increase in temperature. The main emission switched from 482 nm to 816 nm as the temperature increased above 200°C.

Fabrication of tapered single mode fiber by chemical etching and used as a chemical sensor based on evanescent field absorption

Single mode tapered fiber (SMTF) has been fabricated with core diameter of 8 μm and reduced cladding diameter up to 11 μm by hydrofluoric acid (HF) etching technique. To obtain the required cladding diameter, the time of etching has been optimized by using different HF concentrations. The mechanism as well as kinetics path of etching reaction on standard optical fiber is discussed. This study is related to surface catalyzed dissociation of HF followed by direct reaction with adsorbate molecules and the surface silicon oxide molecules. The etched tapered fibers are then packaged on quartz substrate to use as sensor element. Finally, the etched fiber is used as an element within chemical sensor based on evanescent field absorption. In this experiment, a 419-ppm cobalt nitrate solution is used for sensing.

Distribution of Bismuth and Bismuth-Related Centers in Core Area of Y-Al-SiO 2 :Bi Fibers

Analysis of the experimental data on microscopic, absorptive, fluorescent, and Raman-scattering properties of Bismuth (Bi)-doped yttria-alumino-silicate glass (Y-Al-SiO2:Bi)-based nanoengineered optical fibers, exhibiting broadband near-infrared fluorescence, is presented. Among the other well-established characteristics, inherent to Bi-doped silica fibers codoped with Aluminum (Al), a trend of spatial distributions of Bi atoms and Bi-related fluorescence-active centers is determined, being their concentrating in ring-like areas around the cores center, at approximately a half-distance to core/cladding interface. At the same time, the formation in this region of nanosized Bi clusters, supposedly weakly or nonfluorescing, is revealed for the fibers. These phenomena are argued to underlie worsening of the pump-to-signal overlap factor, which deteriorates efficiency of lasers and amplifiers based on such or similar Bi-doped alumino-silicate fibers.

The Use of Yttria-Alumino-Silicate Bismuth Doped Fibers for Temperature Sensing

Yttria-alumino-silicate fibers heavily doped with bismuth (BI) are investigated for fluorescence temperature sensing within the interval 25°C...500°C at 750-nm (LED) excitation. High doping with Bi which resulted in a high concentration of Bi active (fluorescing) centers, is shown to permit the use of short pieces of the fibers as “point” sensors, which is advantageous for applications. Theoretical backgrounds of three commonly utilized sensing techniques, based on measuring fluorescence intensity ratio, fluorescence lifetime, and frequency-domain referencing, are developed and compared, aiming for effective temperature sensing using these fibers.

Complete energy transfer due to rare-earth phase segregation in optical fiber preform glasses

An Yb3+ to Tm3+ energy-transfer quantum yield close to one has been found in phase-separated yttrium–alumina silicate optical fiber preform glasses. Optical absorption, luminescence, lifetime measurements, and rare-earth concentration dependence have been performed to investigate the feasibility of efficient blue upconversion fiber lasers through convenient Yb3+ sensitation. Luminescence decay measurements have demonstrated the co-existence of two phases. One of the phases is characterized by an yttrium-rich composition. Most of the RE ions partition into the yttrium-rich phase and produce the intense upconversion emission.

Mode-Locked Thulium Ytterbium Co-Doped Fiber Laser with Graphene Oxide Paper Saturable Absorber *

A mode-locked thulium ytterbium co-doped fiber laser (TYDFL) is proposed and demonstrated by using a commercial graphene oxide (GO) paper as saturable absorber (SA). The GO paper is sandwiched between two fiber ferrules and incorporates a ring laser cavity to generate soliton pulse train operating at 1942.0 nm at a threshold multimode pump power as low as 1.8 W. The mode-locked TYDFL has a repetition rate of 22.32 MHz and the calculated pulse width of 1.1 ns. Even though the SA has a low damage threshold, the easy fabrication of GO paper should promote its potential application in ultrafast photonics.