ABSTRACT
We demonstrate a mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) utilizing copper phthalocyanines (CuPc) as a saturable absorber (SA) for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. The investigated SA was prepared using a simple, low-cost and straightforward technique, whereby the CuPc powder was embedded into polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to form a thin film. The thin film acted as a mode-locker when it was incorporated into the EDFL cavity to produce output pulses at a repetition rate of 1.8 MHz with a pulse duration of 1.98 ps. The frequency spectrum showed a signal-to-noise ratio as high as 55 dB, which indicates the stability of the mode-locking operation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to report using CuPc as a mode-locker.
ABSTRACT
A mode-locked fiber laser was developed by using bis(8-hydroxyquinoline) zinc (Znq2) as a saturable absorber (SA). Znq2 is an organic metal chelate with several advantages such as good saturable absorption, relatively high damage threshold, and an easy, low-cost, and simple fabrication process. The developed SA based on Znq2 has a linear absorption (at 1560 nm), modulation depth, and saturation intensity of 1.2 dB, 16.6 %, and 95MW/cm2, respectively. The laser cavity produced a very stable soliton mode-locking operation at 1560.6 nm with pulse duration, repetition rate, and SNR of 1.46 ps, 3.5 MHz, and 60.6 dB, respectively. This work is the first, to the best of our knowledge, to report Znq2 as a mode locker.
