All-optical tunable microfiber knot resonator with graphene-assisted sandwich structure

We demonstrate an all-optical tunable microfiber knot resonator (MFKR) by direct light-graphene interaction using external vertical incidence pump laser. The 1530 nm CW pump source is employed to irradiate the sample, which can achieve the performance modulation of MFKR including transmission loss, extinction ratio, and resonant wavelength by the saturable absorption, photo-thermal, and optical Kerr effects, respectively. Compared with the MFKR with only the bottom graphene film, the tunable ranges of transmission loss and extinction ratio are increased by 69 and 125 times, respectively, which can induce a remarkable amplitude tuning. The resonant wavelength of MFKR occurs a red-shift under the irradiation of the pump light, and the red-shift range can exceed one free spectral range (FSR), which means the resonant wavelength could be tuned in the full wavelength range of the transparent window of optical fiber. It is promising for the device to be applied as an all-optical modulator, tunable optical filter, etc. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America