Fauziah Che Mat, Aeriyn D. Ahmad, Masruroh, Irfan Anjum Badruddin, Sarfaraz Kamangar, Hamzah Arof, Sulaiman W. Harun
In this paper, we employ lead phthalocyanine (PbPc), an organic macrocyclic compound, for generating ultrashort laser pulses that are subsequently amplified and injected into a nonlinear gain medium to produce supercontinuum (SC) light in the near-infrared region. The work emphasizes the function of PbPc as a saturable absorber (SA) integrated into an erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) cavity to achieve mode-locked pulsed operation. The PbPc-based SA film is fabricated by inserting PbPc within a polymer host matrix. Incorporating this film into the EDFL cavity enables stable mode-locking, producing ultrashort pulses centered at 1530.5 nm with a duration of 910 fs. Stable operation is sustained within a pump power range of 141.38–210.62 mW, corresponding to a repetition rate of 1.821 MHz and a peak power of 5.20 kW at 210.6 mW. After amplification, the seed laser intensity increases to 25.12 mW, and the amplified pulses are launched into a highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber exhibiting near-zero dispersion at 1550 nm. This configuration enables broadband SC generation in the near-infrared region. At a pump power of 25.12 mW, an ultra-wide spectral bandwidth extending from 1300 nm to beyond 2100 nm is achieved, with an output power around − 30 dBm. This work introduces PbPc SA as an alternative organic SA platform for generating stable femtosecond pulses and broadband near-infrared supercontinuum. © The Author(s) 2026.
Photonics Engineering Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 50603, Malaysia; Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Brawijaya, Malang, 65145, Indonesia; Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Khalid University, Abha, 61421, Saudi Arabia
