Passively Q-switched of EDFL employing multi-walled carbon nanotubes with diameter less than 8 nm as saturable absorber

¹ Malaysia Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 54100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
² Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
³ Photonic Research Centre, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

^* Corresponding author: fauzan.kl@utm.my

Published online: 22 November 2017

Abstract

The paper demonstrates passively Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser implementing multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) based saturable absorber. The paper is the first to report the use of the MWCNTs with diameter less than 8 nm as typically, the diameter used is 10 to 20 nm. The MWCNTs is incorporated with water soluble host polymer, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to produce a MWCNTs polymer composite thin film which is then sandwiched between two fiber connectors. The fabricated SA is employed in the laser experimental setup in ring cavity. The Q-switching regime started at threshold pump power of 103 mW and increasable to 215 mW. The stable pulse train from 41.6 kHz to 76.92 kHz with maximum average output power and pulse energy of 0.17 mW and 3.39 nJ are produced. The shortest pulse width of 1.9 μs is obtained in the proposed experimental work, making it the lowest pulse width ever reported using MWCNTs-based saturable absorber.