Wlodek Strupinski

Residual Metallic Contamination of Transferred Chemical Vapor Deposited Graphene

Integration of graphene with Si microelectronics is very appealing by offering a potentially broad range of new functionalities. New materials to be integrated with the Si platform must conform to stringent purity standards. Here, we investigate graphene layers grown on copper foils by chemical vapor deposition and transferred to silicon wafers by wet etching and electrochemical delamination methods with respect to residual submonolayer metallic contaminations. Regardless of the transfer method and associated cleaning scheme, time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry and total reflection X-ray fluorescence measurements indicate that the graphene sheets are contaminated with residual metals (copper, iron) with a concentration exceeding 10(13) atoms/cm(2). These metal impurities appear to be partially mobile upon thermal treatment, as shown by depth profiling and reduction of the minority charge carrier diffusion length in the silicon substrate. As residual metallic impurities can significantly alter electronic and electrochemical properties of graphene and can severely impede the process of integration with silicon microelectronics, these results reveal that further progress in synthesis, handling, and cleaning of graphene is required to advance electronic and optoelectronic applications.

Thulium-doped all-fiber laser mode-locked by CVD-graphene/PMMA saturable absorber

We report an all-fiber Tm-doped fiber laser mode-locked by graphene saturable absorber. The laser emits 1.2 ps pulses at 1884 nm center wavelength with 4 nm of bandwidth and 20.5 MHz mode spacing. The graphene layers were grown on copper foils by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and transferred onto the fiber connector end. Up to date this is the shortest reported pulse duration achieved from a Tm-doped laser mode-locked by graphene saturable absorber. Such cost-effective and stable fiber lasers might be considered as sources for mid-infrared spectroscopy and remote sensing.

Simultaneous mode-locking at 1565 nm and 1944 nm in fiber laser based on common graphene saturable absorber

We present for the first time to the best of our knowledge an all-fiber thulium (Tm) and erbium (Er) doped fiber laser simultaneously mode-locked by a common graphene saturable absorber. The laser consists of two ring resonators combined with a common saturable absorber (SA). The generated optical solitons have a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 3.9 nm and 4.2 nm for Tm- and Er-doped laser, respectively. The used graphene layers were grown on copper foils by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and transferred onto the fiber connector end. Broadband and flat absorption spectrum of used SA supports mode-locked operation at 1565 nm and 1944 nm. The repetition frequency of the resonator with Er-doped fiber was 20.19 MHz while the Tm-doped resonator was around 1 m longer and resulted with repetition rate of 18.43 MHz. The reported experiment unambiguously confirms one of the biggest advantage of the carbon nanomaterial (in this case graphene) SAs over semiconductor saturable absorption mirrors (SESAM), which is broadband operation range, allowing to mode-lock two lasers spectrally separated by almost 400 nm.

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.

Carrier type inversion in quasi-free standing graphene: studies of local electronic and structural properties

We investigate the local surface potential and Raman characteristics of as-grown and ex-situ hydrogen intercalated quasi-free standing graphene on 4H-SiC(0001) grown by chemical vapor deposition. Upon intercalation, transport measurements reveal a change in the carrier type from n- to p-type, accompanied by a more than three-fold increase in carrier mobility, up to μh ≈ 4540 cm2 V−1 s−1. On a local scale, Kelvin probe force microscopy provides a complete and detailed map of the surface potential distribution of graphene domains of different thicknesses. Rearrangement of graphene layers upon intercalation to (n + 1)LG, where n is the number of graphene layers (LG) before intercalation, is demonstrated. This is accompanied by a significant increase in the work function of the graphene after the H2-intercalation, which confirms the change of majority carriers from electrons to holes. Raman spectroscopy and mapping corroborate surface potential studies.

Passive synchronization of erbium and thulium doped fiber mode-locked lasers enhanced by common graphene saturable absorber

In this work we present for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, a passively synchronized thulium (Tm) and erbium (Er) doped fiber laser mode-locked by a common graphene saturable absorber (GSA). The laser consists of two ring resonators combined with a 90 cm long common fiber branch incorporating the saturable absorber (SA). Such laser generates optical solitons centered at 1558.5 nm and 1938 nm with pulse durations of 915 fs and 1.57 ps, respectively. Both laser loops were passively synchronized at repetition frequency of 20.5025 MHz by nonlinear interaction (cross phase modulation, XPM) in common fiber branch between generated pulses. The maximum cavity mismatch of the Er-laser in synchronization regime was 0.78 mm. The synchronization mechanism was also investigated. We demonstrate that the third order nonlinearities of graphene enhance the synchronization range. In our case the range was increased about 85%. The integrated RMS timing jitter between the synchronized pulses was 67 fs.

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.

Sub-90 fs a stretched-pulse mode-locked fiber laser based on a graphene saturable absorber

In this paper a stretched-pulse, mode-locked Er-doped fiber laser based on graphene saturable absorber (SA) is presented. A 60 layer graphene/polymer composite was used as a SA. The all-fiber dispersion managed laser resonator with the repetition frequency of 21.15 MHz allows for Gaussian pulses generation with the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 48 nm. The generated chirped pulses were compressed outside the cavity to the 88 fs using a piece of standard single mode fiber. The average output power and pulse energy were of 1.5 mW and 71 pJ, respectively.

Graphene growth on Ge(100)/Si(100) substrates by CVD method

The successful integration of graphene into microelectronic devices is strongly dependent on the availability of direct deposition processes, which can provide uniform, large area and high quality graphene on nonmetallic substrates. As of today the dominant technology is based on Si and obtaining graphene with Si is treated as the most advantageous solution. However, the formation of carbide during the growth process makes manufacturing graphene on Si wafers extremely challenging. To overcome these difficulties and reach the set goals, we proposed growth of high quality graphene layers by the CVD method on Ge(100)/Si(100) wafers. In addition, a stochastic model was applied in order to describe the graphene growth process on the Ge(100)/Si(100) substrate and to determine the direction of further processes. As a result, high quality graphene was grown, which was proved by Raman spectroscopy results, showing uniform monolayer films with FWHM of the 2D band of 32 cm−1.

All-fiber Ho-doped mode-locked oscillator based on a graphene saturable absorber

In this Letter, we demonstrate a graphene mode-locked, all-fiber Ho-doped fiber laser generating 1.3 nJ energy pulses directly from the oscillator. The graphene used as a saturable absorber was obtained via chemical vapor deposition on copper substrate and immersed in a poly(methyl methacrylate) support. The laser generated ultrashort soliton pulses at 2080 nm with bandwidth up to 6.1 nm. The influence of the output coupling ratio and the SA modulation depth on the mode-locking performance was also investigated.