Transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) are widely integrated in the field of optoelectronics since they are optically transparent and electrically conductive at the same time. Indium tin oxide (ITO) is a well-developed TCO, but due to its high cost, aluminum zinc oxide (AZO) is now emerging as a promising low-cost replacement for ITO. This work reports on AZO thin film prepared with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a host material. The AZO–PVA thin film was incorporated into an erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) as a saturable absorber for the first time. Both Q-switched and nanosecond pulse mode-locked operation were experimentally achieved. The Q-switched EDFL operated at the center wavelength of 1559.6 nm, which had the shortest pulse width of 2.2 µs, the maximum repetition rate of 86 kHz and the highest pulse energy of 47.3 nJ. The mode-locked was achieved at the center wavelength of 1560.4 nm.
A dark pulse mode-locked laser is experimentally demonstrated using the indium tin oxide (ITO) coated D-shape fiber as a saturable absorber (SA). Using the polishing wheel technique, a D-shape single mode fiber was fabricated. A 60-nm-thick layer of ITO was deposited over the D-shape fiber using the electron beam deposition method. The SA has a saturation intensity of 40.32 MW/cm2 and a modulation depth of 3.5%. A stable dark pulse mode-locked laser was observed at a central wavelength of 1559.4 nm with repetition rate 0.98 MHz, pulse width 370 ns and signal-to-noise ratio 61 dB.
A mode-locked fiber laser was developed by using bis(8-hydroxyquinoline) zinc (
Z
n
q
2
) as a saturable absorber (SA).
Z
n
q
2
is an organic metal chelate with several advantages such as good saturable absorption, relatively high damage threshold, and an easy, low-cost, and simple fabrication process. The developed SA based on
Z
n
q
2
has a linear absorption (at 1560 nm), modulation depth, and saturation intensity of 1.2 dB, 16.6 %, and
95
M
W
/
c
m
2
, respectively. The laser cavity produced a very stable soliton mode-locking operation at 1560.6 nm with pulse duration, repetition rate, and SNR of 1.46 ps, 3.5 MHz, and 60.6 dB, respectively. This work is the first, to the best of our knowledge, to report
Z
n
q
2
as a mode locker.
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