Abstract
We demonstrate a new type of optical saturable absorber based on the
self-assembled topological insulator Bi
$_{2}$
Se
$_{3}$
membrane fabricated by the drop-cast/evaporation
approach. The strong viscosity of Bi
$_{2}$
Se
$_{3}$
allows its attachment onto the optical fiber end-facet for practical
optoelectronic applications. The balanced twin-detector technique was used
to characterize the saturable absorption parameters of the device, which has
a saturating intensity of 101.8 MW/cm
$^{2}$
and a modulation depth of 41.2% at the telecommunication band.
By deploying this device into a fiber laser cavity, we had achieved stable
Q-switched pulses with a repetition rate of 8 kHz and pulse duration of 14
$\mu$
s. Through fine
tuning the laser pump strength and/or cavity birefringence, we could widely
change the Q-switched pulse repetition rate from 4.508 kHz to 12.88 kHz, pulse
duration from 13.4
$\mu$
s to 36
$\mu$
s, and lasing wavelength from 1545.0 nm to 1565.1 nm. A dual-wavelength
passive Q-switching operation was also obtained by enhancing the intra-cavity
birefringence. Our results show the effectiveness of developing Bi
$_{2}$
Se
$_{3}$
optical saturable
absorber device by the drop-cast/evaporation method and applications for pulsed
laser operation.
© 2013 IEEE
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