title: Stable mode-locked fiber laser based on CVD fabricated graphene saturable absorber.
abstract: A stable mode-locked fiber laser (MLFL) employing multi-layer graphene as saturable absorber (SA) is presented. The multi-layer graphene were grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on Ni close to A-A stacking. Linear absorbance spectrum of multi-layer graphene was observed without absorption peak from 400 to 2000 nm. Optical nonlinearities of different atomic-layers (7-, 11-, 14-, and 21- layers) graphene based SA are investigated and compared. The results found that the thicker 21-layer graphene based SA exhibited a smaller modulation depth (MD) value of 2.93% due to more available density of states in the band structure of multi-layer graphene and favored SA nonlinearity. A stable MLFL of 21-layer graphene based SA showed a pulsewidth of 432.47 fs, a bandwidth of 6.16 nm, and a time-bandwidth product (TBP) of 0.323 at fundamental soliton-like operation. This study demonstrates that the atomic-layer structure of graphene from CVD process may provide a reliable graphene based SA for stable soliton-like pulse formation of the MLFL.
authors.affiliation: Department of Photonics, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Pi Ling
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Shau-Ching
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Chao-Yung
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Yeh
authors.forename: Hsin-Hui
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.forename: Shr-Hau
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Gong-Ru
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Lain-Jong
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Ching-Yuan
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Wood-Hi
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Cheng
mesh_terms: D000042:Absorption; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005336:Fiber Optic Technology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006108:Graphite / Q000737:chemistry*; D007834:Lasers; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D006108:Graphite