Passively Mode-Locked Erbium-Doped Fiber

Laser using Gold-Nanosphere based on

Double Cladding Fiber as Saturable Absorber
Jun Yuan, Xuekun Bai, Dengfeng Fan, Jie Gu, Shaofei Wang, Xianglong Zeng*
The Key Lab of Specialty Fiber Optics and Optical Access Network, Shanghai University, 200072 Shanghai, China
*Corresponding author: zenglong@shu.edu.cn

Abstract is obtained. We make the surface of DCF coated with

We have obtained a serial of mode-locked pulses at 1530 GNS by using chemical method. Fig. 1 (b) shows the size
nm with a repetition rate of 8.47 MHz by using a double of GNS is ~50nm, which can induce surface plasmon
cladding fiber coated with gold-nanosphere as saturable resonance. Fig. 1 (c) shows the transmission of DCF
absorber. before and after depositing GNS respectively. The
transmission loss of DCF is relatively high due to its
I. INTRODUCTION leakage structure. After depositing GNS on the surface of
Ultrafast pulse lasers are of strong interest for their DCF, the whole absorb loss is less than 4 dB comparing
wide applications in optical communication, nonlinear with depositing GNS before.
optics, medicine and industry application [1, 2]. Passively D
mode-locked fiber lasers are the most popular laser
source to generate ultrafast pulse due to their structural
simplicity. In recent years, many novel materials, such as 60) '&) 60)
Sb2Te3 and MoS2 have been used as saturable absorber E
(SA) for their broadband saturable absorption response
[3-5]. Gold-nanosphere (GNS) has a large third-
nonlinearity and ultrafast response time about few
picoseconds which have the application in ultrafast optics,
medical science and spectroscopy [6]. In this work, a
double cladding fiber (DCF) coated with gold-nanosphere
was made as saturable absorber, we have obtained a serial
of mode-locked pulse train with a repetition rate of 8.47
MHz, and the central wavelength is 1530.9 nm.

II. EXPERIMENT AND RESULTS (c) -2 before

-3
The double cladding fiber used in this experiment after
-4
Transmission(dB)

consists of three layers, the core, inner cladding and outer

-5
cladding. The core and outer cladding layers have
-6
equivalent refractive index, which is higher than that of
-7
inner cladding. Because of the depressed cladding
structure, the DCF is a typical leaky waveguide and the -8
light wave can be coupled into the outer cladding at -9
phase-matching wavelengths [7, 8]. Based on the mode -10
1470 1500 1530 1560 1590 1620
analysis, the transmission spectrum of the DCF can be Wavelength(nm)
considered as a dual-mode interference process. The
G Pump
optical power exchanges between the core and the outer
cladding modes due to this dual-mode interference.
WDM EDF
Consequently at a certain wavelength, the optical power
in core can be coupled to outer cladding after propagating Coupler
PC
a distance of beat length and re-coupled back the inner
core again while propagating another beat length [9, 10]. 10%
Figure 1 (a) shows the transmitting process of optical Output

field in the DCF. In order to make the lasing wavelengths

of fiber laser match the above-mentioned phase-matching DCF-based SA Isolator
wavelengths, we should choose the right length of DCF
Fig. 1 (a) Transmission process of DCF. (b) Scanning electron
equals to the double beat length. By fusion splicing a
microscope of GNS. (c) Transmission spectrum of DCF before and after
section of DCF with the length of 18 mm between two depositing GNS. (d) Schematic configuration of passively mode-locked
single mode fibers (SMFs), a saturable absorber basement EDFL based on DCF coated with GNS as SA.
 Figure 1 (d) shows the schematic configuration of the laser cavity functions as a loss modulator which consists
passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) of the nonlinear loss and linear loss. The former is
based on DCF coated with GNS. A length of 7.5 m induced by the absorption of the SA and the latter is due
erbium-doped fiber (NUFERN, EDFC-980-HP) is to the loss of the DCF. Fig. 2 (c) shows that the measured
pumped by a 980nm laser diode through a 980/1550 nm average output power increases from 0.72 mW to 1.45
wavelength division multiplexing coupler. The rest of the mW with different pump power by using a commercial
fibers in the laser ring cavity are single-mode fibers and power meter (Yiai, AV6334). The stable repetition rate is
the total length of the cavity is about 24.5 m. The total fixed at ~8.47MHz although the pump power is changed.
dispersion of the cavity is about -0.23 ps2 at 1550nm. Next we can boost the output power by improving the
Temporal and spectral profiles of the mode-locked fiber means of fusion splicing DCF with SMF, and controlling
laser output are recorded by a 10 GHz electro-photonic the length of DCF accurately. Besides, we will be capable
detector (COMQUER, KG-PD-10G-FP) followed by a of preparing favorable GNS with proper size and
350MHz oscilloscope (Agilent, DSO-X 3034A) and an employing higher gain doped fiber to obtain higher
optical spectrum analyzer (YOKOGAWA, AQ6370C). average output power.
Mode-locked of the constructed fiber laser self-starts
at an input pump power of 345.8mW. Such a relatively III. CONCLUSIONS
high threshold power results from the high intra-cavity In conclusion, we have demonstrated a 8.47 MHz
loss induced by the splicing loss of DCF-SMF and the mode-locked EDFL using DCF coated with GNS-based
transmission loss of DCF. Fig. 2 (a) shows the SA. The central wavelength is 1530.9 nm and the 3 dB
corresponding output pulse train with a repetition rate of bandwidth is 5 nm.
~8.47 MHz when passively mode-locked starts.
(a)
0.015 Pulse train REFERENCES
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