A stable mode-locked fiber laser (MLFL) employing multi-layer graphene as saturable absorber (SA) is presented. The multi-layer graphene were grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on Ni close to A-A stacking. Linear absorbance spectrum of multi-layer graphene was observed without absorption peak from 400 to 2000 nm. Optical nonlinearities of different atomic-layers (7-, 11-, 14-, and 21- layers) graphene based SA are investigated and compared. The results found that the thicker 21-layer graphene based SA exhibited a smaller modulation depth (MD) value of 2.93% due to more available density of states in the band structure of multi-layer graphene and favored SA nonlinearity. A stable MLFL of 21-layer graphene based SA showed a pulsewidth of 432.47 fs, a bandwidth of 6.16 nm, and a time-bandwidth product (TBP) of 0.323 at fundamental soliton-like operation. This study demonstrates that the atomic-layer structure of graphene from CVD process may provide a reliable graphene based SA for stable soliton-like pulse formation of the MLFL.

In this study, the cyclic voltammetry method was first used to find the reduced voltages and anodic peaks of Bi3+, Sb3+, and Te4+ ions as the judgments for the growth of the (Bi,Sb)2 - x Te3 + x-based materials. Ethylene glycol (C2H6O2) was used as a solvent, and 0.3 M potassium iodide (KI) was used to improve the conductivity of the solution. Two different electrolyte formulas were first used: (a) 0.01 M Bi(NO3)3-5H2O, 0.01 M SbCl3, and 0.01 M TeCl4 and (b) 0.015 M Bi(NO3)3-5H2O, 0.005 M SbCl3, and 0.0075 M TeCl4. The potentiostatic deposition process was first used to find the effect of reduced voltage on the variation of compositions of the (Bi,Sb)2 - xTe3 + x-based materials. After finding the better reduced voltage, 0.01 M Bi(NO3)3-5H2O, 0.01 M SbCl3, and 0.01 M TeCl4 were used as the electrolyte formula. The pulse deposition process was successfully used to control the composition of the (Bi,Sb)2 - xTe3 + x-based materials and grow the nanowires in anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) templates.