Depressed cladding erbium-doped fiber laser passively mode-locked with carbon nanotube saturable absorber

• Main Authors: Ahmad, Harith, Zulkifli, Ahmad Zarif, Tiu, Zian Cheak, Thambiratnam, Kavintheran, Yasin, Moh
• Format: Article
• Published: IOP Publishing 2019
• Subjects: QC Physics
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/24344/; https://doi.org/10.1088/1612-202X/ab0a70
• Institution: Universiti Malaya

A depressed cladding erbium doped fiber (DC-EDF) laser with a carbon nanotube saturable absorber is proposed and demonstrated. The laser is able to generate a mode-locked output with a narrow pulse width of 0.77 ps at a lasing wavelength of 1496 nm. A 200 m long single-mode fiber together with the DC-EDF, with a negative and positive dispersion respectively is used to balance the effect of dispersion and the non-linearity of the system. The output is highly stable, with a signal to noise ratio in the radio frequency domain of 51.2 dB as well as a pulse energy, average output power and repetition rate of 58.9 pJ, -12.75 dBm and 900.9 KHz at the maximum pump power. The proposed laser would have significant applications for S-band communications systems. © 2019 Astro Ltd.