Femtosecond mode-locking of an ytterbium-doped fiber laser using self-assembled gold nanorods

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate the use of a saturable absorber (SA) based on self-assembled gold nanorods (GNRs) for femtosecond mode-locking of an ytterbium-doped fiber-based 1 µm laser. A novel type of SA was made by implementation of an end-to-end GNRs self-assembly technique through hot-air induced rapid drying of the GNRs in a deionized water suspension, which enabled us to enhance optical absorption in the 1.06 µm wavelength region. By incorporating this novel SA into an ytterbium-doped fiber-based ring cavity under dispersion-managed conditions, we were able to readily generate mode-locked, soliton pulses having a temporal width of 840 fs at 1063.9 nm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of the effectiveness of a GNRs-based SA for the generation of femtosecond soliton pulses operating in the 1 µm range.