Femtosecond pulse generation with voltage-controlled graphene saturable absorber.

We report, for the first time to our knowledge, the demonstration of a graphene supercapacitor as a voltage-controlled saturable absorber for femtosecond pulse generation from a solid-state laser. By applying only a few volts of bias, the Fermi level of the device could be shifted to vary the insertion loss, while maintaining a sufficient level of saturable absorption to initiate mode-locked operation. The graphene supercapacitor was operated at bias voltages of 0.5-1V to generate sub-100 fs pulses at a pulse repetition rate of 4.51 MHz from a multipass-cavity Cr(4+):forsterite laser operating at 1255 nm. The nonlinear optical response of the graphene supercapacitor was further investigated by using pump-probe spectroscopy.

Energy scaling of a carbon nanotube saturable absorber mode-locked femtosecond bulk laser.

We report successful energy scaling of a room-temperature femtosecond Cr4+: forsterite laser by using a single-walled carbon nanotube saturable absorber (SWCNT-SA). By incorporating a q-preserving multipass cavity, a repetition rate of 4.51 MHz was realized, and the oscillator produced 121 fs, 10 nJ pulses at 1247 nm, with an average output power of 46 mW. To the best of our knowledge, the peak power of 84 kW is the highest generated to date from a SWCNT-SA mode-locked oscillator. Furthermore, energy scaling of a femtosecond multipass-cavity laser, mode-locked using a SWCNT-SA, is demonstrated for the first time.

Measurement of carrier envelope offset frequency for a 10 GHz etalon-stabilized semiconductor optical frequency comb.

We report Carrier Envelope Offset (CEO) frequency measurements of a 10 GHz harmonically mode-locked, Fabry-Perot etalon-stabilized, semiconductor optical frequency comb source. A modified multi-heterodyne mixing technique with a reference frequency comb was utilized for the measurement. Also, preliminary results from an attempt at f-2f self-referencing measurement are presented. The CEO frequency was found to be ~1.47 GHz for the particular etalon that was used.

Intracavity dispersion effect on timing jitter of ultralow noise mode-locked semiconductor based external-cavity laser.

We report the generation of optical pulse trains with 380 as of residual timing jitter (1 Hz-1 MHz) from a mode-locked external-cavity semiconductor laser, through a combination of optimizing the intracavity dispersion and utilizing a high-power, low-noise InGaAsP quantum-well slab-coupled optical waveguide amplifier gain medium. This is, to our knowledge, the lowest residual timing jitter reported to date from an actively mode-locked laser.

Ultralow-noise mode-locked optical pulse trains from an external cavity laser based on a slab coupled optical waveguide amplifier (SCOWA).

We report the generation of optical pulse trains with 8.5 fs timing jitter (10 Hz to 10 MHz) from a mode-locked semiconductor laser, with a slab coupled optical waveguide amplifier used as the gain element. This is, to our knowledge, the lowest residual timing jitter reported to date from an actively mode-locked laser.