Fauzan Ahmad

A Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser with a carbon nanotube based saturable absorber

We demonstrate a simple, compact and low cost Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) using single-wall carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as a saturable absorber for possible applications in metrology, sensing, and medical diagnostics. The EDFL operates at around 1560 nm with repetition rates of 16.1 kHz and 6.4 kHz with saturable absorbers SA1 and SA2 at a pump power of 120 mW. The absorbers are constructed by optically driven deposition and normal deposition techniques. It is observed that the optical deposition method produces a Q-switched EDFL with a lower threshold of 70 mW and better Q-switching performance compared to that of the normal deposition method. The EDFL also has pulse energy of 90.3 nJ and pulse width of 11.6 μs at 120 mW pump power.

A Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser with a graphene saturable absorber

We demonstrate a simple, compact and low cost Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) exploiting a graphene saturable absorber (GSA) for possible applications in metrology, sensing and medical diagnostics. The EDFL operates at 1560 nm with repetition rates of 31.3 kHz and 25 kHz with GSA1 and GSA2, respectively, at pump power of 120 mW. The repetition rate is smaller with a lower pump power. It has a pulse width of 7.5 μs and pulse energy of 43.7 nJ with GSA2 at 120 mW pump power. It is also observed that a thicker layer of graphene produces a Q-switched fiber laser with a lower pump threshold and a higher output energy, but smaller repetition rate and pulse width.

Electrically Tunable Microfiber Knot Resonator Based Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser

A compact and tunable fiber laser is demonstrated using a microfiber knot resonator structure made by a highly doped Erbium fiber. A stable laser output is achieved at the 1533-nm region with a signal to noise ratio of 15 dB using a 63-mW 980-nm pump power. With the assistance of a copper wire touching the circumference of the ring, operating wavelength of the proposed laser can be tuned by injecting electric current into the copper wire. The peak wavelength of the laser can be tuned from 1533.3 to 1533.9 nm as the loading current is increased from 0 to 1.0 A. This is due to the thermally induced optical phase shift attributable to the heat produced by the flow of the current. It is also shown experimentally that the wavelength shift is linearly proportional to the square of the amount of current with a tuning slope of 700 pm/A2.

Nanosecond soliton pulse generation by mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser using single-walled carbon-nanotube-based saturable absorber

We demonstrate a simple and low cost mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) operating in the nanosecond region using a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT)-based saturable absorber (SA). A droplet of SWCNT solution is applied on the end of a fiber ferrule, which is then mated to another clean connector ferrule to construct an SA. Then the SA is integrated into a ring EDFL cavity for nanosecond pulse generation. The EDFL operates at around 1570.4 nm, with a soliton-like spectrum with small Kelly sidebands, which confirms the attainment of the anomalous dispersion. It produces a soliton pulse train with a 332 ns width, repetition rate of 909.1 kHz, an average output power of 0.31 mW, and energy of 0.34 nJ at the maximum pump power of 130.8 mW.

Tapered Plastic Optical Fiber Coated With HEC/PVDF for Measurement of Relative Humidity

A simple humidity sensor is proposed and demonstrated using a tapered plastic optical fiber (POF) as a probe. Its operation is based on intensity modulation technique using a tapered POF probe coated with a polymer blend of hydroxyethylcellulose/polyvinylidenefluoride (HEC/PVDF) composite that acts as the humidity sensitive cladding. The sensor is fabricated using an etching method and has a waist diameter of 0.45 mm and tapering length of 10 mm. As the relative humidity varies from 50% to 85%, the output voltage of the sensor increases linearly from 0.32 to 1.25 mV. The HEC/PVDF composite-coated sensor exhibits a sensitivity of 0.023 mV/% with a slope linearity of . The sensitivity of HEC/PVDF composite-coated cladding toward humidity stems from its ability to swell as humidity increases in the atmosphere resulting in a drop in its refractive index below that of the core and thus allowing more light to be transmitted through the tapered fiber.

A Passively Mode-Locked Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser Based on a Single- Wall Carbon Nanotube Polymer

We demonstrate a simple, compact and low-cost mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) using a single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) poly-ethylene oxide (PEO) composite as a passive saturable absorber (SA). The composite with an SWCNT concentration of 18wt% is prepared by mixing the SWCNT homogeneous solution with a diluted PEO polymer solution. A droplet of the polymer composite is applied on the fiber ferrule end, which is then mated to another clean ferrule connector to construct an SA. The SA is then integrated into the laser system to self-start stable mode locking at 1557 nm without employing a polarization controller. The EDFL generates a stable soliton pulse train with a duration of 0.81 ps, repetition rate of 44 MHz and average output power of 92.4 μW at a 980 nm pump power of 26.8 mW. The soliton laser starts to lase at a pump power threshold of 14.6 mW.

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.

Self-Starting Harmonic Mode-Locked Thulium-Doped Fiber Laser with Carbon Nanotubes Saturable Absorber

We report a ring cavity passively harmonic mode-locked thulium-doped fiber laser (TDFL) using a newly developed single-wall carbon nanotube-based saturable absorber. The TDFL generates the 25th harmonic mode-locked stretched pulse train with a high repetition rate of 213 MHz and a pulse duration of 710 fs. The laser operates at 1901.6 nm with an average power of 1.89 mW, which corresponds to the pulse energy of 0.008 nJ, at 1552 nm pump power of 719 mW. The peak-to-background ratio is measured to be 60 dB, which indicates the stability of the laser.

Tapered Plastic Optical Fiber Coated With Graphene for Uric Acid Detection

A simple tapered plastic optical fiber (POF) sensor is proposed and demonstrated for the detection of uric acid concentrations in deionized water. The sensor uses a tapered POF probe coated with different concentrations of graphene in a polymer composite. The tapered fiber is fabricated using an etching method and has a waist diameter of 0.45 mm and tapering length of 10 mm. The coating improves the sensitivity of the proposed sensor as it changes the effective refractive index of the cladding and allows more lights to be transmitted from the tapered fiber. The probe is immersed in uric acid solution and it senses the relative acid concentration using intensity modulation technique. As the uric acid concentration varies from 0 to 500 ppm, the output voltage of the sensor increases linearly from 2.98 to 4.36 mV with a sensitivity of 0.0021 mV/ppm and a linearity of more than 98.88%. A more efficient and stable sensor with graphene polymer composite coating increases the sensitivity due to the effective refractive index of the deposited cladding that allows more light to be transmitted through the tapered fiber.

Study of a fiber optic humidity sensor based on agarose gel

An optical fiber humidity sensor was fabricated using a hydrophilic gel (agarose) deposited on the tapered plastic optical fiber (POF). The sensing element, agarose, can absorb and exude moisture from/to the ambience, thereby altering its refractive index and changing its ability to modulate the intensity of light that propagates through the fiber. Thus, the operating principle of the sensor is based on the intensity modulation technique, which utilizes a tapered POF probe coated with agarose that is sensitive to humidity. The POF, which was fabricated using an etching method, has a waist diameter of 0.45 mm and tapering length of 10 mm. As the relative humidity varies from 50% to 80%, the output voltage of the sensor with agarose gel of 0.5% weight content decreases linearly from 2.24 mV to 1.55 mV. The agarose-based sensor produces a sensitivity of 0.0228 mV/%, with a slope linearity of more than 98.36%. The tapered fiber with agarose gel of 1% weight content produces a sensitivity of 0.0103 mV/% with a slope linearity of more than 94.95% and a limit of detection of 2.635%, while the tapered fiber with agarose gel of 1.5% weight content produces a sensitivity of 0.0079 mV/% with a slope linearity of more than 98.53% and a limit of detection of 6.853%. The fiber with agarose gel of 0.5% weight content shows higher sensitivity compared to that of 1% and 1.5% due to the effect of pore size, which changes with concentration. The results demonstrate that agarose-based optical fiber sensors are both sensitive and efficient for economical and flexible measurements of humidity.