Low-loss flake-graphene saturable absorber mirror for laser mode-locking at sub-200-fs pulse duration

Saturable absorbers are a key component for mode-locking femtosecond lasers. Polymer films containing graphene flakes have recently been used in transmission as laser mode-lockers but suffer from high nonsaturable loss, limiting their application in low-gain lasers. Here, we present a saturable absorber mirror based on a film of pure graphene flakes. The device is used to mode lock an erbium-doped fiber laser, generating pulses with state-of-the-art, sub-200-fs duration. The laser characteristic indicates that the film exhibits low nonsaturable loss (13% per pass) and large absorption modulation depth (45% of low-power absorption).Saturable absorbers are a key component for mode-locking femtosecond lasers. Polymer films containing graphene flakes have recently been used in transmission as laser mode-lockers but suffer from high nonsaturable loss, limiting their application in low-gain lasers. Here, we present a saturable absorber mirror based on a film of pure graphene flakes. The device is used to mode lock an erbium-doped fiber laser, generating pulses with state-of-the-art, sub-200-fs duration. The laser characteristic indicates that the film exhibits low nonsaturable loss (13% per pass) and large absorption modulation depth (45% of low-power absorption).
View less >

Journal Title

Applied Physics Letters

Volume

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3672418

Copyright Statement

© 2011 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Applied Physics Letters, 99, 261109 (2011); and may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3672418

Subject

Physical sciences

Condensed matter characterisation technique development

Lasers and quantum electronics

Engineering

Publication URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10072/42958

Collection

Journal articles