Fe3O4 nanoparticles as a saturable absorber for giant chirped pulse generation

Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology

Abdul Qyyum^1¹  Ji-Shu Liu^1²  Xiao-Hui Li^1³ 

[1] Hunan Key Laboratory of Super Microstructure and Ultrafast Process, School of Physics and Electronics, Central South University, Changsha and 410083, China^2;School of Physics & Information Technology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, China;Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Advanced Energy Devices, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, China^1

关键词: erbium laser;    Fe3O4 nanoparticles;    fiber lasers;    saturable absorber;   

DOI  :  10.3762/bjnano.10.107

学科分类：地球科学(综合)

来源: Beilstein - Institut zur Foerderung der Chemischen Wissenschaften

【 摘 要 】

Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles (FONPs) are magnetic materials with a small band gap and have well-demonstrated applications in ultrafast photonics, medical science, magnetic detection, and electronics. Very recently, FONPs were proposed as an ideal candidate for pulse generation in fiber-based oscillators. However, the pulses obtained to date are on the order of microseconds, which is too long for real application in communication. Here, we report the use of FONPs synthesized by a sol–hydrothermal method and used as a saturable absorber (SA) to achieve nanosecond pulses in an erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) for the first time. The proposed fiber laser is demonstrated to have a narrow spectral width of around 0.8 nm and a fixed fundamental repetition rate (RPR) of 4.63 MHz, whose spectra and pulse dynamics are different from the mode-locked lasers reported previously. It is demonstrated that the proposed fiber laser based on a FONP SA operates in the giant-chirp mode-locked regime. The most important result is the demonstration of a pulse duration of 55 ns at an output power of 16.2 mW, which is the shortest pulse based on FONPs for EDFLs reported to date. Our results demonstrate that the FONP dispersion allows for an excellent photonic material for application in ultrafast photonics devices, photoconductive detectors, and optical modulators.

【 授权许可】

CC BY