High-quality, large-area monolayer graphene for efficient bulk laser mode-locking near 125 μm

Cho, Won Bae; Kim, Jun Wan; Lee, Hwang Woon; Bae, Sukang; Hong, Byung Hee; Choi, Sun Young; Baek, In Hyung; Kim, Kihong; Yeom, Dong‐Il; Rotermund, Fabıan

doi:10.1364/ol.36.004089

Cited by 128 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Because ideal freestanding monolayer graphene is centrosymmetric, its second-order nonlinear response vanishes within the dipole approximation [24]. In contrast, symmetry-allowed third-order nonlinear optical effects in graphene are remarkably strong, leading to studies that include saturable absorption [27][28][29][30][31][32], optical limiting [33,34], two-photon absorption [35], four-wave mixing (FWM) [36,37], and current-induced SHG [38]. In one notable FWM investigation, the authors have estimated the third-order nonlinear susceptibility of single-layer and multilayer graphene and demonstrated the capability of FWM for imaging of graphene using two input beams [36].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical Third-Harmonic Generation in Graphene

et al. 2013

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We report strong third-harmonic generation in monolayer graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition and transferred to an amorphous silica (glass) substrate; the photon energy is in threephoton resonance with the exciton-shifted van Hove singularity at the M point of graphene. The polarization selection rules are derived and experimentally verified. In addition, our polarization-and azimuthal-rotation-dependent third-harmonic-generation measurements reveal in-plane isotropy as well as anisotropy between the in-plane and out-of-plane nonlinear optical responses of graphene. Since the third-harmonic signal exceeds that from bulk glass by more than 2 orders of magnitude, the signal contrast permits background-free scanning of graphene and provides insight into the structural properties of graphene.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical Third-Harmonic Generation in Graphene

et al. 2013

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“…Macroscopic single-or multi-layer graphene sheets are highquality saturable absorbers [5,6] and can exhibit loss at the few percent level in the saturated state, allowing their use for femtosecond pulse generation in bulk lasers [7,8]. Devices using micron-scale graphene flakes dispersed in polymer also exhibit large saturable absorption [4,[9][10][11].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Cunning

Brown

Kielpinski

2011

Applied Physics Letters

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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 indicate that the film exhibits low nonsaturable loss (13% per pass) and large absorption modulation depth (45% of low-power absorption).Femtosecond laser pulses are essential tools for applications ranging from atomic clocks [1] to medical imaging [2]. Femtosecond lasers use saturable absorption to initiate pulse formation in a process called modelocking. Short laser pulses with high peak intensity experience less loss in a saturable absorber than long, low-intensity pulses, so gain competition in the laser favors short pulses. While the saturable absorption effect can be obtained by various indirect means, the simplest and most robust femtosecond lasers employ physical optical elements that are engineered to exhibit the desired intensity-dependent absorption characteristic. The most widely used of these devices is the semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM), which uses heterostructure quantum wells as absorbers deposited on a reflective substrate [3]. At high laser intensity, the small number of available conduction-band states is rapidly filled so that absorption ceases. More recently, it has been realized that nanoparticles can yield the desired saturable absorption, and devices based on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SW-CNTs) are now well established as saturable absorbers for femtosecond lasers [4].Since the emergence of graphene as an optical material, a number of experiments have used graphene as a saturable absorber material to mode-lock lasers. Macroscopic single-or multi-layer graphene sheets are highquality saturable absorbers [5,6] and can exhibit loss at the few percent level in the saturated state, allowing their use for femtosecond pulse generation in bulk lasers [7,8]. Devices using micron-scale graphene flakes dispersed in polymer also exhibit large saturable absorption [4,[9][10][11]. Suspensions of graphene flakes are reliably and straightforwardly prepared by a number of chemical processes [12][13][14], avoiding the specialized and/or probabilistic preparation procedures used for sheet graphene. A pure flake-graphene saturable absorber was used to mode-lock an Nd:YAG laser, achieving 4 ps pulse duration [15]. In recent work, a saturable absorber based on graphene flakes in polymer achieved 175 fs pulse duration, a record for any graphene mode-locked fiber laser [16]. However, the loss of the absorber in that experiment was 70%, while the change in loss due to saturation was 2%, making it unsuitable for low-gain lasers. Moreover, exclusively transmissive geometries have been used for flake-gr...

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“…t A = 1.45 ps for graphene [9], while t A ranges from 0.75 ps to 1 ps for carbon nanotubes [4,6]. For graphene, F sat is 14.5 µJ/cm 2 [9], while F sat is 10 µJ/cm 2 for carbon nanotubes [4,6]. Therefore, it seems reasonable to choose for all parameters their values in graphene and to study just the influence of q 0 .…”

Section: The Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More recently, graphene has been employed for both temporal regimes, too, both in monolayer [9][10][11] and multilayer forms [12][13][14], in bulk solid-state lasers. While in fiber lasers, multilayer graphene [15] or graphene nanoparticles [16] have been used to produce mode locking in erbium-doped fiber lasers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Q-Switched Operation with Carbon-Based Saturable Absorbers in a Nd:YLF Laser

2015

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Abstract:We have numerically studied the influence of the absorption modulation depth of carbon-based saturable absorbers (graphene and carbon nanotubes (CNTs)) on the Q-switched regime of a diode-pumped Nd:YLF laser. A short-length cavity was used with an end mirror on which CNTs or mono-or bi-layer graphene were deposited, forming a saturable absorber mirror (SAM). Using a standard model, the generated energy per pulse was calculated, as well as the pulse duration and repetition rate. The results show that absorbers with higher modulation depths, i.e., graphene, deliver higher energy pulses at lower repetition rates. However, the pulse duration did not have a monotonic behavior and reaches a minimum for a given low value of the modulation depth typical of CNTs.

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High-quality, large-area monolayer graphene for efficient bulk laser mode-locking near 125 μm

Cited by 128 publications

References 16 publications

Optical Third-Harmonic Generation in Graphene

Optical Third-Harmonic Generation in Graphene

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

Q-Switched Operation with Carbon-Based Saturable Absorbers in a Nd:YLF Laser

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