Carbon nanotube mode-locked thulium fiber laser with 200 nm tuning range

Abstract

We demonstrated a mode-locked thulium/holmium (Tm/Ho) fiber laser continuously tunable across 200 nm (from 1860 nm to 2060 nm), which to the best of our knowledge represents the widest tuning range ever achieved for a passively mode-locked fiber laser oscillator. The combined use of a broadband carbon nanotube (CNT) saturable absorber and a diffraction grating mirror ensures ultra-broad tuning range, superb stability and repeatability, and makes the demonstrated laser a highly practical source for spectroscopy, imaging and optical communications. The laser emits <5 ps pulses with an optical spectral bandwidth of ∼43 nm across the full tuning range. Our results indicate that carbon nanotubes can be an excellent saturable absorber for achieving gain-bandwidth-limited tunable operation for 2 μm thulium fiber lasers.