Large energy soliton erbium-doped fiber laser with a graphene-polymer composite mode locker

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a novel graphene-polymer nanocomposite used as a saturable absorber to achieve stable, high-energy soliton pulses in an erbium-doped fiber laser at 1590 nm, highlighting its potential for ultrafast photonics.

Contribution

First use of a chemically functionalized graphene-polymer nanocomposite for mode locking a fiber laser to generate high-energy solitons.

Findings

Generated 3 nJ pulse energy at 700 fs pulse width

Achieved stable mode locking at 1590 nm wavelength

Demonstrated potential for high power ultrafast laser applications

Abstract

Due to its unique electronic property and the Pauli Blocking Principle, atomic layer graphene possesses wavelength-independent ultrafast saturable absorption, which can be exploited for the ultrafast photonics application. Through chemical functionalization, a graphene-polymer nanocomposite membrane was fabricated and firstly used to mode lock a fiber laser. Stable mode locked solitons with 3 nJ pulse energy, 700 fs pulse width at the 1590 nm wavelength have been directly generated from the laser. We show that graphene-polymer nanocomposites could be an attractive saturable absorber for high power fiber laser mode locking.