As a member of transition metal dichalcogenides
(TMDs), NbTe2 has a work function of 5.32 eV and a band
gap of 0 eV at
the Fermi level, which enables it to possess broadband absorption
characteristics and has huge potential in optoelectronic devices.
In this work, a combination of liquid phase exfoliation (LPE) and
optical deposition methods (ODMs) were used to fabricate a NbTe2 saturable absorber (SA). Based on the NbTe2 SA,
a ring passive mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser (PML-EDFL) was
constructed by adding NbTe2 SA into the laser cavity. A
switchable single- to multiwavelength (dual/triple/quadruple) conventional
soliton (CS) and a bound-state soliton (BS) were observed for the
first time. The results reveal that NbTe2 SA has excellent
saturable absorption characteristics (modulation depth of 2.6%, saturation
intensity of 177.4 MW/cm2, and unsaturated loss of 63.8%)
and can suppress mode competition and stabilize multiwavelength oscillation.
This study expands the applications of NbTe2 nanosheets
in ultrafast optoelectronics. The proposed switchable PML-EDFL has
extensive applications in high-capacity all-optical communication,
high-sensitivity optical fiber sensing, high-precision spectral measurements,
and high-energy-efficiency photon neural networks.
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