Krzysztof M. Abramski

Black phosphorus saturable absorber for ultrashort pulse generation

Low-dimensional materials, due to their unique and versatile properties, are very interesting for numerous applications in electronics and optoelectronics. Recently rediscovered black phosphorus, with a graphite-like layered structure, can be effectively exfoliated up to the single atomic layer called phosphorene. Contrary to graphene, it possesses a direct band gap controllable by the number of stacked atomic layers. For those reasons, black phosphorus is now intensively investigated and can complement or replace graphene in various photonics and electronics applications. Here, we demonstrate that black phosphorus can serve as a broadband saturable absorber and can be used for ultrashort optical pulse generation. The mechanically exfoliated ∼300 nm thick layers of black phosphorus were transferred onto the fiber core, and under pulsed excitation at 1560 nm wavelength, its transmission increases by 4.6%. We have demonstrated that the saturable absorption of black phosphorus is polarization sensitive. The fabricated device was used to mode-lock an Er-doped fiber laser. The generated optical solitons with the 10.2 nm bandwidth and 272 fs duration were centered at 1550 nm. The obtained results unambiguously show that black phosphorus can be effectively used for ultrashort pulse generation with performances similar or even better than currently used graphene or carbon nanotubes. This application of black phosphorus proves its great potential to future practical use in photonics.

Multilayer graphene-based saturable absorbers with scalable modulation depth for mode-locked Er- and Tm-doped fiber lasers

We demonstrate an experimental study on the influence of the parameters of a graphene-based saturable absorber (SA) on the performance of mode-locked Er- and Tm-doped fiber lasers. We have fabricated a set of saturable absorbers with different number of graphene layers: 9, 12, 24, 37 and 48. Each SA was characterized in terms of nonlinear optical parameters (modulation depth, saturation intensity, saturation fluence) and tested in two state-of-the-art, low-power Er- and Tm-doped fiber lasers. Our results show, that in the Er-laser the broadest output spectrum (11 nm) and shortest pulses (345 fs) are generated using 37 layers of graphene in the SA. In case of a Tm-laser, the best performance (737 fs pulses with 5.82 nm bandwidth) was achieved with 24 layers. Additionally, we show that the modulation depth of a 9-layer SA is insufficient to initiate mode-locking in both lasers. This is the first reported comprehensive study on controlling of the parameters of a SA by scaling the number of graphene layers.

All-polarization maintaining, graphene-based femtosecond Tm-doped all-fiber laser

We report an all-fiber, all-polarization maintaining (PM) ultrafast Tm-doped fiber laser mode-locked by a multilayer graphene-based saturable absorber (SA). The laser emits 603 fs-short pulses centered at 1876 nm wavelength with 6.6 nm of bandwidth and 41 MHz repetition rate. Graphene used as saturable absorber was obtained via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on copper substrate and immersed in a poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) support, forming a stable, free-standing foil containing 12 graphene layers, suitable for the use in a fiber laser. The generated 603 fs pulses are the shortest reported pulses achieved from a Tm-doped laser mode-locked by graphene saturable absorber so far. Additionally, this is the first demonstration of an all-PM Tm-doped fiber laser incorporating a graphene-based SA. Such cost-effective, compact and stable fiber lasers might be considered as sources usable in nonlinear frequency conversion, mid-infrared spectroscopy and remote sensing.

Fully-integrated dual-wavelength all-fiber source for mode-locked square-shaped mid-IR pulse generation via DFG in PPLN

First demonstration of a dissipative soliton resonance (DSR), double-clad (DC) active fiber, mode-locked figure-8 laser (F8L) enabling simultaneous amplification of 1064 nm seed signal is presented. Appropriate design supported peak power clamping (PPC) effect in the laser resonator and enabled easy tuning of the generated, square-shaped pulses from 20 ns to 170 ns. By incorporating a circulator-based isolating element in the directional loop of the laser, record pulse energy of 2.13 μJ was achieved, directly at the output of the resonator. The usability of the unique dual-wavelength design was experimentally put to a test in a difference frequency generation (DFG) setup using periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) crystal.

80 fs passively mode-locked Er-doped fiber laser

In this paper, 80 fs pulse generation from an all-fiber Er-doped laser is reported. The laser is mode-locked by a nonlinear polarization evolution mechanism in a stretched-pulse regime. Ultrashort pulses are generated directly from a ring-shaped, dispersion-managed cavity with a repetition rate of 31.9 MHz and 0.47 nJ of pulse energy. The laser has an all-fiber design, including the dispersion compensation and external compression stages, forming a robust and compact device.

Repetition frequency scaling of an all-polarization maintaining erbium-doped mode-locked fiber laser based on carbon nanotubes saturable absorber

We demonstrate an all-polarization maintaining (PM), mode-locked erbium (Er)-doped fiber laser based on a carbon nanotubes (CNT) saturable absorber (SA). The laser resonator was maximally simplified by using only one passive hybrid component and a pair of fiber connectors with deposited CNTs. The repetition frequency (Frep) of such a cost-effective and self-starting mode-locked laser was scaled from 54.3 MHz to 358.6 MHz. The highest Frep was obtained when the total cavity length was shortened to 57 cm. The laser allows ultrashort pulse generation with the duration ranging from 240 fs to 550 fs. Because the laser components were based on PM fibers the laser was immune to the external perturbations and generated laniary polarized light with the degree of polarization (DOP) of 98.7%.

260 fs and 1 nJ pulse generation from a compact, mode-locked Tm-doped fiber laser.

We report on generation of 260 fs-short pulses with energy of 1.1 nJ from a fully fiberized, monolithic Tm-doped fiber laser system. The design comprises a simple, graphene-based ultrafast oscillator and an integrated all-fiber chirped pulse amplifier (CPA). The system generates 110 mW of average power at 100.25 MHz repetition rate and central wavelength of 1968 nm. This is, to our knowledge, the highest pulse energy generated from a fully fiberized sub-300 fs Tm-doped laser, without the necessity of using grating-based dispersion compensation. Such compact, robust and cost-effective system might serve as a seed source for nonlinear frequency conversion or mid-infrared supercontinuum generation.

High-power pump combiners for Tm-doped fibre lasers

Abstract In this paper our results of investigation on a pump power combiner in a configuration of 7×1 are presented. The performed combiner, with pump power of 80–85% transmission level, was successfully applied in a thulium doped fibre laser. The performed all-fibre laser setup reached a total CW output power of 6.42 W, achieving the efficiency on a 32.1% level.

Numerical simulations of spectral broadening in all-normal dispersion photonic crystal fiber at various pump pulse conditions

Abstract. Supercontinuum (SC) generation contained in the normal dispersion range of an optical fiber has been shown to be limited primarily by the available peak power and length of the pump pulse. In this work, we numerically investigate the SC spectral width and flatness for various pump pulse conditions in a nonlinear, all-solid, soft-glass, photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with a flattened dispersion profile. We assume a range of pump pulse parameters with pulse lengths between 250 and 100 fs (60 to 150 kW of peak power), and input pulse energies between 10 and 30 nJ, numerically reaching a maximum SC width of 800 to 2600 nm. The presented theoretical study provides a guideline for the selection of a fiber laser pump source, or in other words, it enables one to expect the extent of spectral broadening in the developed, all-normal dispersion PCF, when presently available fiber laser pump pulse parameters are assumed.

Rapid fabrication of microdevices by controlling the PDMS curing conditions during replication of a laser-prototyped mould

This paper presents a method that enables fast and low-cost fabrication of microchannels with oval cross-section. The procedure is based on formation of a concave meniscus at the interface between an initially cured PDMS and a polymeric mould fabricated using excimer laser. In this technique, the mould is not filled with uncured PDMS. The replica is formed by expanding gas trapped within the structures of the mould during thermal curing. A second shaping factor is connected with surface phenomena at the interface between the mould, gas and partially cured PDMS. The final shape of the meniscus is determined when the PDMS reaches the high cure extent. The microchannels with oval cross-section are obtained by using a completely cured PDMS replica as a mould in an analogical second fabrication step. As a result an all-in-PDMS chip can be produced. The cross-section of channels can be controlled by changing the curing conditions. We investigated the influence of the initial PDMS curing time and pressure during final curing on the geometry of the created microchannels. The fabricated microstructures are characterized by constant depth and high quality of the surface.