Ameliorating the stability of erbium-doped fiber laser using saturable absorber fabricated by the pulsed laser deposition technique

Abstract

In this paper, we present the performance and stability of an erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) based on ZnO saturable-absorber (SA) prepared using two schemes: solution method (SM) and pulsed laser deposition technique (PLDT). It was observed that EDFL with ZnO-SA prepared using SM emits at 1561.25 nm under a pump power of 230 mW. As the pump power is increased from 22.2 mW to 75.3 mW, the pulse duration decreases from 24.91 to 10.69 µs, and the pulse repetition rates increase from 11.59 to 40.91 kHz. Besides at pump power of 75.3 mW, the peak power, pulse energy, and average output power are measured as 0.327 mW, 2.86 nJ, and 0.18 mW, respectively. However, when PLDT-based SA was incorporated into the ring cavity, the emission wavelength is noticed at 1568.21 nm at a pump power of 230 mW. With the increase in pump power from 22.2 mW to 418 mW, the pulse repetition rates increase from 10.79 to 79.37 kHz and the pulse width decreases from 23.58 to 5.6 µs. Furthermore, the peak power, pulse energy, and average output power are observed to be 10.9 mW, 74 nJ, and 5.35 mW, respectively. The stability of EDFL based on SAs prepared using SM and PLDT has also been investigated. To the best of the author's knowledge, it is the first comparison of performance and long-term stability of EDFL based on two experimental techniques SM and PLDT-based SAs. These findings suggest that PLDT-based SAs provides optimum stability over a long period and enhanced the performance of fiber lasers compared to the SAs prepared using the conventional SM technique. This study paves the way for the development of ultra-stable SAs for their potential applications in pulsed laser sources and photonic devices.

Q-switched pulse operation in erbium-doped fiber laser subject to zirconia (ZrO2) nanoparticles-based saturable absorber

“…This leads the laser towards switching of laser output from a CW state to a pulsed state. Recently, several efforts have been dedicated towards the fabrication of SAs through the utilization of chemical vapor deposition [ 11 ], liquid-phase-epitaxy [ 12 ], nano-powder [ [13] , [14] , [15] ], solution methods [ 16 ], pulsed laser deposition-based thin films [ [17] , [18] , [19] ] and then incorporating the nanostructures or thin-film material within the laser cavity which has significantly enhanced the performance and efficacy of pulsed fiber laser sources.…”

Passively Q-Switched Er-Doped Fiber Laser Based on Bentonite Clay (Al2H2O6Si) Saturable Absorber

“…Several types of SAs are commonly used in fiber lasers, and a few of them are semiconductor saturable-absorber mirrors (SESAMs) [17], graphene [18], carbon nanotube [19], topological insulators [20], transition metal dichalcogenides [21], oxide-based thin-films [22,23], black-phosphorus [24] and quantum-dots [25]. Typically, these SAs materials lead toward higher absorption at lower optical intensities and become transparent at relatively higher intensities making these materials suitable for the generation of ultrashort pulses of light.…”

Passively Q-switched Er-doped fiber laser based on carbon-doped silver nanoparticles saturable absorber prepared using laser ablation method

“…Previous reports indicate that the implementation of the SAs inside the laser cavity could be in the form of D-shaping fiber coated with electron beam deposition [18,20] or a PVA-based thin film [19,[21][22][23][24]. Most recently, the pulsed laser deposition technique [25][26][27] has been implemented for the fabrication of SAs which is much more stable relative to those prepared using conventional techniques.…”