Enhancement of Q-Switched Erbium-Doped Fibre Laser Performance using Graphene Oxide-Calcium Oxide Thin Film Saturable Absorbers

Muhammad Ilham Ahmad Zaini; Abdul Rahman Johari; Ganesan Krishnan; Ahmad Fakhrurrazi Ahmad Noorden; Suzairi Daud

doi:10.11113/mjfas.v20n4.3460

Authors

Muhammad Ilham Ahmad Zaini Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Abdul Rahman Johari Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Ganesan Krishnan ᵃDepartment of Physics, Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia ᵇLaser Center, Ibnu Sina Institute for Scientific & Industrial Research (ISI-SIR), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Ahmad Fakhrurrazi Ahmad Noorden Centre for Advanced Optoelectronics Research (CAPTOR), Kuliyyah of Science, International Islamic University Malaysia, 25200 Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia
Suzairi Daud ᵃDepartment of Physics, Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia ᵇLaser Center, Ibnu Sina Institute for Scientific & Industrial Research (ISI-SIR)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11113/mjfas.v20n4.3460

Keywords:

Saturable absorber, GO, GO – CaO, thin films, Q-switched laser.

Abstract

This paper presents an experiment utilizing calcium oxide (CaO) from the cuttlefish bone combined with graphene oxide (GO) to create a graphene oxide-calcium oxide (GO-CaO) based saturable absorber (SA) for Q-switched erbium-doped fibre lasers. The experiment aims to investigate the impact of calcium oxide when added to graphene oxide to form the SA thin film. The laser performance of both types of SA was compared, considering their input pump power, repetition rate, pulse width, and output power. The results indicated that the graphene oxide – calcium oxide SA thin film provided the best output power and the lowest threshold input pump power at 10.76 µW and 53.12 mW, respectively. In the characterization, UV-Vis spectroscopy was utilized to determine the number of discrete wavelengths in UV or visible light that the materials absorbed or transmitted. The UV-Vis results indicated that the graphene oxide thin film exhibited an absorbance value of 0.049 AU and a transmittance value of 89.25 % at a wavelength of 1565 nm. In comparison, the GO-CaO SA thin film displayed an absorbance value of 0.037 AU and a transmittance value of 91.89 % at the same wavelength. Raman spectroscopy was also conducted to provide details about the chemical structure and crystallinity of the thin film samples. The results showed high-intensity peaks for the GO thin film at wavenumbers of 1353.74 cm^-1 and 1609.85 cm^-1, and for GO – CaO thin film at wavenumbers of 1358.56 cm^-1 and 1612.18 cm^-1. Additionally, SEM was utilized to study the morphology of the thin film samples. Based on the characterization and laser performance results, it was concluded that the addition of calcium oxide to graphene oxide enhances the properties of the SA thin film, leading to improved laser performance due to its higher thermal conductivity.

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