Mid-Infrared Q-Switched and Mode-Locked Fiber Lasers at 2.87 mu m Based on Carbon Nanotube

Authors：We, Chen; Lyu, Yanjia^*; Shi, Hongxia; Kang, Zhe^*; Zhang, Han; Qin, Guanshi; Liu, Yong

Source：IEEE Journal on Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 2019, 25(4): 1100206.

DOI：10.1109/JSTQE.2019.2899015

• Mid-infrared fiber lasers
• carbon nanotubes
• mode-locked lasers
• Q-switched lasers
• optical pulses

We report Q-switching and mode-locking operations in a Ho3+/Pr3+ co-doped ZBLAN fiber laser at 3-mu m mid-infrared waveband using a single-walled carbon nanotuhe saturable absorber (SWCNT-SA). The SWCNTs were produced by catalytic chemical vapor deposition method and then deposited on the surface of a flat gold-coated mirror to form the SWCNT-SA. The modulation depth and saturation intensity of the SWCNT-SA are 16.5% and 1.66 MW/cm(2) , respectively. Stable Q-switched laser pulses operating at 2865.6 nm were obtained at a launched pump power of 530.6 mW. The resulting pulses have a measured repetition rate and pulse width of 178.6 kHz and 1.21 mu s, respectively. The maximum pulse energy is calculated to he 036 mu J. By slightly adjusting the position of the SWCNT-SA, stable continuous-wave mode-locked pulses at 2865.2 nm were also achieved. Our work demonstrates that SWCNTs are promising SAs for 3-mu m midin-frared pulsed lasers.

• Institution
  吉林大学; 中国科学院国家天文台长春人造卫星观测站; 电子科技大学; 四川大学