Mode-locking S-band erbium fiber laser by employing alcohol-based saturable-absorber

Abstract

In this work, we investigate a passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser employing alcohol-based saturable absorber (SA) in S-band window for the first time. The operated S-band range is completed by using erbium-doped silica fiber with depressed cladding scheme and 980 nm pump laser to produce the gain extension effect in S-band. The alcohol is utilized to serve as the saturable absorber (SA) of the EDF laser, which is cost-effective and easily-prepared. Here, the pulse repetition rate and pulse duration of proposed EDF laser are 2.55 MHz and 13.2 ns, respectively, when the 980 nm pump laser is set at 455 mW. In addition, to the best of our knowledge, it is the first investigation of passively mode-locked EDF laser with an alcohol-based SA in S-band.