Nanophotonics (Apr 2020)

MXene saturable absorber enabled hybrid mode-locking technology: a new routine of advancing femtosecond fiber lasers performance

  • Ma Chunyang,
  • Huang Weichun,
  • Wang Yunzheng,
  • Adams Jordan,
  • Wang Zhenhong,
  • Liu Jun,
  • Song Yufeng,
  • Ge Yanqi,
  • Guo Zhongyi,
  • Hu Lanping,
  • Zhang Han

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2019-0527
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 8
pp. 2451 – 2458

Abstract

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MXene is a promising two-dimensional (2D) material that is widely used in electro-photonic devices due to its unique properties. In this contribution, V2CTx, a novel MXene, was employed as a saturable absorber (SA) for hybrid passively mode-locked fiber lasers. An ultra-stable and self-starting mode-locked laser system with low threshold can be achieved using V2CTx nanosheets and nonlinear polarization evolution (NPE). Signal to noise ratio increased 13 dB compared with using only NPE SA. A 72 fs pulse duration is easily achieved from this hybrid mode-locked fiber laser system. To the best of our knowledge, this is the shortest pulse duration generated from the Yb-doped mode-locked fiber lasers using a hybrid or 2D SAs. This study proves that MXene V2CTx nanosheets can be developed as suitable SAs and served as potential advanced ultrafast photonic devices in the future.

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