‘Plug-and-play’ plasmonic metafibers for ultrafast fibre lasers

• Published in: Light: advanced manufacturing 2022-01, Vol.3 (4), p.1-12
• Main Authors: Zhang, Lei, Zhang, Huiru, Tang, Ni, Chen, Xiren, Liu, Fengjiang, Sun, Xiaoyu, Yu, Hongyan, Sun, Xinyu, Jia, Qiannan, Chen, Boqu, Cluzel, Benoit, Grelu, Philippe, Coillet, Aurelien, Qiu, Feng, Ying, Lei, Sha, Wei E. I., Liu, Xiaofeng, Qiu, Jianrong, Zhao, Ding, Yan, Wei, Wu, Duanduan, Shen, Xiang, Wang, Jiyong, Qiu, Min
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: fibre lasers; metafibers; metasurfaces; nonlinear plasmonics; Physics; saturable absorption
• ISSN: 2831-4093; 2689-9620
• DOI: 10.37188/lam.2022.045

Metafibers expand the functionalities of conventional optical fibres to unprecedented nanoscale light manipulations by integrating metasurfaces on the fibre tips, becoming an emerging light-coupling platform for both the nanoscience and fibre optics communities. Current metafibers remain proof-of-concept demonstrations that mostly explore isolated bare fibres owing to the lack of standard interfaces with universal fibre networks. Here, we develop methodologies for fabricating well-defined plasmonic metasurfaces directly on the end facets of commercial single-mode fibre jumpers using standard planar technologies and provide the first demonstration of their practical applications in the nonlinear plasmonic regime. Featuring plug-and-play connections with fibre circuitry and arbitrary metasurface landscapes, the metafibers with tunable plasmonic resonances are implemented into fibre laser cavities, yielding all-fibre sub-picosecond (minimum 513 fs) soliton mode locked lasers at optical wavelengths of 1.5 μm and 2 μm, demonstrating their unusual polarimetric nonlinear transfer functions and superior saturation absorption responses. The nanofabrication process flow is compatible with existing cleanroom technologies, offering metafibers an avenue to become a regular member of functionalised fibre components. This work paves the way toward the next generation of ultrafast lasers, optical frequency combs, and ultracompact 'all-in-fibre' optical systems.