Antimonene-based saturable absorber for a soliton mode-locked and Q-switched fiber laser in the 2 μm wavelength region

Abstract

In this work, we have demonstrated antimonene as a saturable absorber to generate ultrafast mode-locked and Q-switched laser at a 2-micron wavelength region. The two antimonene-based SAs were prepared and inserted separately in a thulium-holmium doped fiber laser (THDFL) to produce the pulsed lasers. Antimonene was coated onto the tapered fiber to generate soliton mode-locked pulses and in thin-film form for the generation of Q-switched pulses. The modelocking was stable within the pump power of 267 to 511 mW, and the laser operated at the center wavelength of 1897.4 nm. The mode-locked laser had a pulse width of 1.3 ps and a repetition rate of 12.6 MHz, with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 64 dB. The Q-switched laser operation was stable at the wavelength of 1890.1 nm within the pump power of 312 to 381 mW. With the increase in pump power from 312 mW to 381 mW, the repetition rate increased to a maximum of 56.63 kHz and the pulse width decreased to a minimum value of 2.85 μs. A wide range tunability of Q-switched laser was also realized within the wavelength of 1882 to 1936 nm.

Fabrication and Characterization of Silicon-Based Antimonene Thin Film via Electron Beam Evaporation

“…Xue et al [ 19 ] assembled antimonene nanosheets on the surface of a gold chip using layer-by-layer technology and found that the sensitivity of antimonene to the SPR sensor varies with different thicknesses, which is defined as the ratio of the change in resonance angle to the change in the refractive index of the analyte, which is at least 2.3 times higher than existing miRNA sensors, even many orders of magnitude higher. It has a high refractive index in ultraviolet [ 20 ] and nonlinear characteristic behaviors [ 21 , 22 ] in optical properties and has applications in lasers [ 23 , 24 ] and laser protection [ 25 ].…”

Wavelength-tunable mode-locked laser using zinc phosphate as a saturable absorber at 1.9 μm

“…These lasers can be formed in a linear or ring cavity [5]. The doped fibers of rare Earth ions such as thulium, holmium, or thulium-holmium are the suitable gain medium for 2 μm wavelength [6][7][8]. Thulium doped fiber laser (TDFL) can be pumped at 1550 nm having the emission at 1.9 μm.…”

“…However, these reports were limited to C-band as the erbium-doped fiber was used as a gain medium for their work. Moreover, due to their limited physical and chemical properties, the new SAs are still being explored [6,[32][33][34]. For instance, graphene has a low damage threshold, and BP can quickly oxidize, so its performance degrades when exposed to air.…”