Performance of Graphene Nanopowder-Polyvinyl Alcohol in Optical Pulse Generation at 1.5 Micron Region

Authors

  • Nabihah Hussain School of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
  • Mohd Rashidi Salim School of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
  • Asrul Izam Azmi School of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
  • Muhammad Yusof Mohd Noor School of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
  • Ahmad Sharmi Abdullah School of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
  • Fauzan Ahmad Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology
  • Ibrahim Mohd Haniff School of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4302/plp.v13i3.1113

Keywords:

Saturable absorber, Graphene nanopowder, Polyvinyl alcohol, Q-switched laser

Abstract

This paper explains about the performance of graphene nanopowder (GNP) based saturable absorber (SA) at 1.5-micron region which is prepared by dissolution in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) polymer. Two different GNP flakes thickness (AO2-8 nm and AO4-60 nm) are tested. By applying a solution casting method, three weight ratio of GNP to PVA (12.04, 8.03 and 3.11 wt.%) have been prepared and fabricated as a composite thin film. To characterize for the SA performance, 4 mm2 area of GNP-PVA thin film is embedded in a 14 meters long ring cavity with 3 meters Erbium doped fiber (EDF) as a gain medium. Our characterization results show that the GNP-PVA thin film act as a Q-switcher which produce stable laser pulses for 12.04 wt.% with maximum repetition rate of 39.22 kHz and shortest pulse width of 11.79 µs. Meanwhile, unstable Q-switched pulses of 8.03 wt.% and 3.11 wt.% have been observed with recorded signal to noise ratio (SNR) of only 21 dB and 17 dB, respectively. The threshold pumping power for Q-switched lasing to emerge is recorded as low as 30 mW. Apparently, it shows that GNP concentration and flakes thickness in fabricated SA composite plays vital role in the performance of generated Q-switch laser, particularly at 1.5 µm region.

Full Text: PDF

References
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Published

2021-09-30

How to Cite

[1]
N. Hussain, “Performance of Graphene Nanopowder-Polyvinyl Alcohol in Optical Pulse Generation at 1.5 Micron Region”, Photonics Lett. Pol., vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 55–57, Sep. 2021.

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 3 (2021)

Section

Articles

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