Mode-locked erbium-doped all fiber laser using few-layer graphene as a saturable absorber

•We achieved an erbium-doped mode locked fiber laser.•Layer-controllable graphene is used as the saturable absorber.•Monolayer graphene was fabricated by the chemical vapor deposition method.

We demonstrate an erbium-doped fiber laser that is passively mode locked by a few-layer graphene saturable absorber. Monolayer graphene was fabricated on copper foil by the chemical vapor deposition method and the corresponding Raman spectroscopy was measured. Few-layer graphene films were transferred to the end surface of fiber connector by the adsorption effect of Van der Waals force to fabricate the saturable absorber. Stable mode-locked pulses at a central wavelength of 1568.1 nm were obtained. The repetition rate, maximum average output power, and pulse width were 7.29 MHz, 1.68 mW, and 58.8 ps, respectively. Experimental results illustrate that few-layer graphene is a promising saturable absorber for mode-locked fiber laser.