M. A. Ismail

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.

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.

C-Band Q-Switched Fiber Laser Using Titanium Dioxide (TiO 2 ) As Saturable Absorber

We demonstrate a passively Q-switched erbium fiber laser using titanium dioxide (TiO2) as a saturable absorber. The TiO2 saturable absorber was fabricated as a polymer composite film and sandwiched between fiber ferrules. Q-switched pulsing starts with the assistance of physical disturbance of the laser cavity (by lightly tapping the cavity to induce instability) at 140 mW and lasts until 240 mW. The repetition rate increases with the pump power from 80.28 to 120.48 kHz. On the other hand, the pulsewidth decreases from 2.054 μs until it reaches a plateau at 1.84 μs. The Q-switched fiber laser exhibits two competing modes: at 1558.1 and 1558.9 nm as the pump power increases. A high signal-tonoise ratio of 49.65 dB is obtained.

Using a black phosphorus saturable absorber to generate dual wavelengths in a Q-switched ytterbium-doped fiber laser

Using a few-layer black phosphorus (BP) thin film that acts as a saturable absorber (SA) in an ytterbium-doped fiber laser setup, we experimentally demonstrated a passively dual-wavelength Q-switching laser operation. The setup also incorporated a D-shaped polished fiber as a wavelength selective filter. As the SA was used in the ring cavity, a dual-wavelength Q-switch produced consistent outputs at 1038.68 and 1042.05 nm. A maximum pulse energy of 2.09 nJ with a shortest pulse width of 1.16 µs was measured for the achieved pulses. In addition, the repetition rate increased from 52.52 to 58.73 kHz with the increment of the pump level. Throughout the measurement process, the results were obtained consistently and this demonstrates that the BP film is a very good candidate to produce Q-switching pulses for the 1 micron region.

Passively Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser at C-band region based on WS_2 saturable absorber

We demonstrate a Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser using tungsten disulfide (WS₂) as a saturable absorber. The WS₂ is deposited onto fiber ferrules using a drop-casting method. Passive Q-switched pulses operating in the C-band region with a central wavelength of 1560.7 nm are successfully generated by a tunable pulse repetition rate ranging from 27.2 to 84.8 kHz when pump power is increased from 40 to 220 mW. At the same time, the pulse width decreases from a maximum value of 3.84 μs to a minimum value of 1.44 μs. The signal-to-noise ratio gives a stable value of 43.7 dB. The modulation depth and saturation intensity are measured to be 0.99% and 36.2  MW/cm², respectively.

S-band Q-switched fiber laser using molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) saturable absorber

In this letter, a molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) saturable absorber (SA) is fabricated using a simple drop cast method to generate Q-switched fiber laser operating in the S-band region (1460 nm-1530 nm). The MoS2 solution was prepared using the liquid phase exfoliation (LPE) method where MoS2 crystals were added into dimethylformamide (DMF) solvent and subsequently sonicated and centrifuged. They were then repeatedly dripped onto fiber ferrules and dried in an oven. The resultant Q-switched fiber laser starts with some physical disturbance when the pump power was set at 40 mW and continues to operate until the pump power reaches 120 mW. The resultant repetition rate varies with pump power between 27.17 to 101.17 kHz while the changes in pulse widths are from 3.0 to 1.4 μs.

Performance Comparison of Mode-Locked Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser with Nonlinear Polarization Rotation and Saturable Absorber Approaches

A mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) is demonstrated using a highly concentrated erbium-doped fiber (EDF) as the gain medium in a ring configuration with and without a saturable absorber (SA). Without the SA, the proposed laser generates soliton pulses with a repetition rate of 12 MHz, pulse width of 1.11 ps and energy pulse of 1.6 pJ. By incorporating SA in the ring cavity, the optical output of the laser changes from soliton to stretched pulses due to the slight change in the group velocity dispersion. With the SA, a cleaner pulse is obtained with a repetition rate of 11.3 MHz, a pulse width of 0.58 ps and a pulse energy of 2.3 pJ.

Tunable Q-switched fiber laser using zinc oxide nanoparticles as a saturable absorber.

Nanomaterials have ignited new interest due to their distinctive electronic, mechanical, and optical properties. Zinc oxide nanostructures are fabricated into thin film and then inserted between two fiber ferrules to act as a saturable absorber (SA). The modulation depth and insertion loss of the SA are 5% and 3.5 dB, respectively. When the ZnO-SA is incorporated into the laser cavity, a stable Q-switched pulse tunable from 1536 to 1586 nm (50 nm range) with pulse energy up to 46 nJ was observed. Our result suggests that ZnO is a promising broadband SA to generate passively Q-switched fiber lasers.

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.