Graphene Oxide vs. Reduced Graphene Oxide as saturable absorbers for Er-doped passively mode-locked fiber laser

摘要

In this work we demonstrate comprehensive studies on graphene oxide (GO) andreduced graphene oxide (rGO) based saturable absorbers (SA) for mode-locking ofEr-doped fiber lasers. The paper describes the fabrication process of bothsaturable absorbers and detailed comparison of their parameters. Our resultsshow, that there is no significant difference in the laser performance betweenthe investigated SA. Both provided stable, mode-locked operation with sub-400fs soliton pulses and more than 9 nm optical bandwidth at 1560 nm centerwavelength. It has been shown that GO might be successfully used as anefficient SA without the need of its reduction to rGO. Taking into accountsimpler manufacturing technology and the possibility of mass production, GOseems to be a good candidate as a cost-effective material for saturableabsorbers for Er-doped fiber lasers.