All-normal dispersion passively mode-locked Yb-doped fiber laser using MoS2–PVA saturable absorber

Abstract

We demonstrate the generation of a dissipative soliton in an all-normal dispersion ytterbium (Yb)-doped fiber laser using few-layer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) as a saturable absorber. The saturable absorber is prepared by mixing few-layer MoS2 solution with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to form a free-standing composite film. The modulation depth and saturation intensity of the MoS2–PVA film are 11 and 5.86 MW cm−2, respectively. By incorporating the MoS2 saturable absorber in the fiber laser cavity, the mode-locked pulses are generated with a pulse width of 1.55 ns and a 3 dB spectral bandwidth of 0.9 nm centered at 1037.5 nm. The fundamental repetition rate and the average power are measured as 15.43 MHz and 1.5 mW, respectively. These results reveal the feasibility of deploying liquid-phase exfoliated few-layer MoS2 nanosheets for dissipative soliton generation in the near-IR region.