Bimetallic solid solution MAX phase Ti2NbAlC2 as saturable absorber for passively Q-switched Er3+-doped fiber laser

Abstract

In this paper, we demonstrated a stable Q-switched fiber laser operation with a central wavelength of 1531.43 nm using a bimetallic solid solution MAX phase Ti2NbAlC2 saturable absorber. The minimum pulse duration of 3.67 μs and the maximum repetition rate of 32.56 kHz were acquired at the pump power of 300 mW. Furthermore, the Q-switched pulse has a maximum output power of 1.08 mW and a maximum pulse energy of 33.14 nJ. Our results indicate that the Ti2NbAlC2 is a promising saturable absorber material. The bimetallic solid solution MAX phase materials may be developed as novel nonlinear photonic devices with outstanding performance.