Highly Stable Passively Q-Switched Erbium-Doped All-Fiber Laser Based on Niobium Diselenide Saturable Absorber

Abstract

A saturable absorber (SA) based on niobium diselenide (NbSe2), which is a layered transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) in the VB group, is fabricated by the optically driven deposition method, and the related nonlinear optical properties are characterized. The modulation depth, saturable intensity, and nonsaturable loss of the as-prepared NbSe2 nanosheet-based SA are measured to be 16.2%, 0.76 MW/cm2, and 14%, respectively. By using the as-fabricated NbSe2 SA, a highly stable, passively Q-switched, erbium-doped, all-fiber laser is realized. The obtained shortest pulse width is 1.49 μs, with a pulse energy of 48.33 nJ at a center wavelength of 1560.38 nm. As far as we know, this is the shortest pulse duration ever obtained by an NbSe2 SA in a Q-switched fiber laser.

Development of a Mode-Locked Fiber Laser Utilizing a Niobium Diselenide Saturable Absorber

“…Ultrashort pulse lasers have been widely applied in medical diagnosis, optical detection, material processing, precision machining and fiber communication due to their advantages of a narrow pulse width and high peak power [1][2][3]. Passive mode-locking technology is the main method used to achieve ultrashort pulse output.…”

Generation of stable Q-switched pulses at 1566 nm by using a segment of erbium-doped fiber as saturable absorber

“…Two popular techniques to obtain pulsed fiber lasers are Q-switching and modelocking. However, the Q-switching technique is most suitable to obtain stable pulses of duration in the regime of a few microseconds to nanoseconds and repetition rate in the regime of a few kilohertz to hundreds of kilohertz [6]. Stable Q-switched pulses can be obtained by inserting an acoustooptic modulator (AOM) inside a laser cavity and modulating * Authors to whom any correspondence should be addressed.…”