The SnSSe SA with high modulation depth for passively Q-switched fiber laser

Abstract

IV–VI semiconductors have attracted widespread attention in basic research and practical applications, because of their electrical and optoelectronic properties comparable to graphene. Herein, an optical modulator based on SnSSe with strong nonlinearity is prepared by chemical vapor transfer method. The modulation depth of proposed SnSSe saturable absorber (SA) is up to 57.5%. By incorporating SnSSe SA into the laser, the Q-switched pulses as short as 547.8 ns are achieved at 1530.07 nm. As far as we know, this is the first successful application of SnSSe in Q-switched lasers. Our investigation not only prove the optical nonlinearity of SnSSe, but also reveal the potential of SnSSe SA in ultrafast photonics.

Keywords

• two-dimensional nanomaterials
• saturable absorbers
• mode-locked laser
• fiber lasers