Abstract
We experimentally demonstrate the use of a saturable absorber (SA) based on self-assembled gold nanorods (GNRs) for femtosecond mode-locking of an ytterbium-doped fiber-based 1 μm laser. A novel type of SA was made by implementation of an end-to-end GNRs self-assembly technique through hot-air induced rapid drying of the GNRs in a deionized water suspension, which enabled us to enhance optical absorption in the 1.06 μm wavelength region. By incorporating this novel SA into an ytterbium-doped fiber-based ring cavity under dispersion-managed conditions, we were able to readily generate mode-locked, soliton pulses having a temporal width of 840 fs at 1063.9 nm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of the effectiveness of a GNRs-based SA for the generation of femtosecond soliton pulses operating in the 1 μm range.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 090001 |
Journal | Laser Physics Letters |
Volume | 14 |
Issue number | 9 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 2017 |
Keywords
- fiber lasers
- gold nanorods
- mode-locking
- self-assembly
- ytterbium-doped fiber