Broadband all-optical modulation using a graphene-covered-microfiber

We demonstrate all-optical modulation based on ultrafast saturable absorption in graphene-covered-microfiber. By covering the microfiber surface with polydimethylsiloxane supported graphene film along the fiber length, a greatly enhanced interaction between the propagating light and the graphene can be obtained via the strong evanescent field of the microfiber. The strong light-graphene interaction results in high-speed, broadband all-optical modulation with maximum modulation depths of 5 dB and 13 dB for single-layer and bi-layer graphene, respectively. Such a graphene all-optical modulator is easy to fabricate, is compatible with optical fiber systems and has high potential in photonics applications such as all-optical switching and all-optical communications.