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

**Authors:** Han Zhang, Qiaoliang Bao, Dingyuan Tang, Luming Zhao, and Kianping Loh

arXiv: 0909.5540 · 2015-05-14

## 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.

## Key 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.

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Source: https://tomesphere.com/paper/0909.5540