Highly stable and repeatable femtosecond soliton pulse generation from saturable absorbers based on two-dimensional Cu3−xP nanocrystals

doi:10.1007/s12200-020-1018-y

Front. Optoelectron.

2020, Vol. 13

Issue (2) : 139-148 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12200-020-1018-y

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Highly stable and repeatable femtosecond soliton pulse generation from saturable absorbers based on two-dimensional Cu₃₋_xP nanocrystals

Haoran MU¹, Zeke LIU², Xiaozhi BAO³, Zhichen WAN¹, Guanyu LIU⁴(

), Xiangping LI⁴, Huaiyu SHAO³, Guichuan XING³, Babar SHABBIR¹, Lei LI⁵, Tian SUN², Shaojuan LI², Wanli MA², Qiaoliang BAO¹(

)

¹. Department of Materials Science and Engineering and ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET), Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia
². Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices, and Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China
³. Joint Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education, Institute of Applied Physics and Materials Engineering (IAPME), University of Macau, Macau, China
⁴. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Fiber Sensing and Communications, Institute of Photonics Technology, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China
⁵. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Laser Materials and Devices, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Laser Technology and Emerging Industry, School of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou 221116, China

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Abstract

Heavily doped colloidal plasmonic nanocrystals have attracted great attention because of their lower and adjustable free carrier densities and tunable localized surface plasmonic resonance bands in the spectral range from near-infra to mid-infra wavelengths. With its plasmon-enhanced optical nonlinearity, this new family of plasmonic materials shows a huge potential for nonlinear optical applications, such as ultrafast switching, nonlinear sensing, and pulse laser generation. Cu₃₋_xP nanocrystals were previously shown to have a strong saturable absorption at the plasmonic resonance, which enabled high-energy Q-switched fiber lasers with 6.1 µs pulse duration. This work demonstrates that both high-quality mode-locked and Q-switched pulses at 1560 nm can be generated by evanescently incorporating two-dimensional (2D) Cu₃₋_xP nanocrystals onto a D-shaped optical fiber as an effective saturable absorber. The 3 dB bandwidth of the mode-locking optical spectrum is as broad as 7.3 nm, and the corresponding pulse duration can reach 423 fs. The repetition rate of the Q-switching pulses is higher than 80 kHz. Moreover, the largest pulse energy is more than 120 µJ. Note that laser characteristics are highly stable and repeatable based on the results of over 20 devices. This work may trigger further investigations on heavily doped plasmonic 2D nanocrystals as a next-generation, inexpensive, and solution-processed element for fascinating photonics and optoelectronics applications.

Keywords plasmonic semiconductors fiber laser mode-locking ultrafast generation

Corresponding Author(s): Guanyu LIU,Qiaoliang BAO

Just Accepted Date: 28 June 2020 Online First Date: 13 July 2020 Issue Date: 21 July 2020

Cite this article:

Haoran MU,Zeke LIU,Xiaozhi BAO, et al. Highly stable and repeatable femtosecond soliton pulse generation from saturable absorbers based on two-dimensional Cu₃₋_xP nanocrystals[J]. Front. Optoelectron., 2020, 13(2): 139-148.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/foe/EN/10.1007/s12200-020-1018-y
https://academic.hep.com.cn/foe/EN/Y2020/V13/I2/139

Fig.1 Material morphology and optical characterizations of Cu₃₋_xP nanocrystals. (a) SEM image of Cu₃₋_xP nanocrystals (scale bar: 100 nm) and TEM image of single Cu₃₋_xP NC (inset: 10 nm scale bar). (b) AFM image (scale bar: 1 µm). (c) Optical absorption spectra of Cu₃₋_xP nanocrystals in toluene solution (black line) and silicon substrate (blue line). (d) Typical XRD patterns of Cu₃₋_xP NCs (i.e., the well-resolved peaks overlapped well with the hexagonal Cu₃P structure (space group: P6₃cm). (e) ¹H NMR spectra of TOP (bottom) and Cu₃₋_xP NCs (top) dissolved in CDCl₃. (f) Schematic diagram of Cu₃₋_xP NCs. (g) Optical image of Cu₃₋_xP nanocrystal assembly. (h) Corresponding photoluminescence (PL) mapping result (scale bar: 1 µm). (i) PL spectrum of Cu₃₋_xP nanocrystal assembly

Fig.2 Nonlinear absorption curves of the evanescently interacted Cu₃₋_xP SAs measured by the balanced twin-detector measurement technique. (a) SA with 120 mL Cu₃₋_xP solution drop-casted onto a side-polished fiber. (b) SA with 240 mL Cu₃₋_xP solution drop-casted onto the side-polished fiber (inset: optical image of the SA device). Scale bar: 100 mm

Fig.3 Typical mode-locking characteristics. (a) Typical mode-locking optical spectrum (inset: zoom-in view of the optical spectrum). (b) Mode-locking pulse train (inset: pulse train over 1 ms). (c) Autocorrelation trace. (d) RF optical spectrum at the fundamental frequency (inset: wideband RF spectrum). (e) Long-term stability of the mode-locked laser by measuring the time-dependent optical spectra for up to 6 h

Fig.4 Q-switched pulse output characteristics. (a) Optical spectrum. (b) Q-switched pulse train. (c) Single Q-switched pulse. (d) Radiofrequency optical spectrum at the fundamental frequency (inset: wideband RF spectrum). (e) Pulse repetition rate and duration versus incident pump power. (f) Output power versus incident pump power

Fig.5 Statistical distribution of the characteristics of the optical spectra collected from 10 pieces of Cu₃₋_xP-based Q-switched fiber lasers (black) and 11 pieces of Cu₃₋_xP-based mode-locked fiber lasers (red). (a) Statistical distribution of the 3 dB bandwidth and the corresponding Gauss-fitting results. (b) Statistical distribution of the central wavelength and the corresponding Gauss-fitting results

Fig. S1 Evolution of output optical spectra while using different amounts of Cu₃₋_xP solution to prepare SA. (a) Brand new fiber without Cu₃₋_xP nanocrystals. (b) 40 μL. (c) 60 μL. (d) 80 μL. (e) 100 μL. (f) 120 μL. All laser experiments were performed under the same condition of intra-cavity polarization state and pump power. Inset: optical images of the side-polished optical fibers (a) without or (b)–(f) with 2D Cu₃₋_xP nanocrystals. Scale bar: 100 μm

Fig. S2 Q-switched pulse trains obtained at different pump powers

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