In this communication, we demonstrate a passive mode-locked Er:Yb co-doped double-clad fiber laser using a tapered microfiber topological insulator (Bi₂Se₃) saturable absorber (TISA). The topological insulator is drop-casted onto the tapered fiber and optically deposited by optical tweezer effect. We use a ring laser setup including the fabricated TISA. By carefully optimizing the cavity losses and output coupling ratio, the mode-locked laser can operate in L-band with a high average output power. At a maximum pump power of 5 W, we obtain the 91^st harmonic mode-locking of soliton bunches with a 3dB spectral bandwidth of 1.06nm, a repetition rate of 640.9 MHz and an average output power of 308mW. As far as we know, this is the highest output power yet reported of a mode-locked fiber laser operating with a TISA.

Date Published: 27 April 2016
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 9893, Laser Sources and Applications III, 98930R (27 April 2016); doi: 10.1117/12.2224945

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9893:
Laser Sources and Applications III
Jacob I. Mackenzie; Helena JelÍnková; Takunori Taira; Marwan Abdou Ahmed, Editor(s)