Abstract
A MAX phase Ti3AlC2 thin film is demonstrated as a saturable absorber (SA) to induce Q-switching in the 2.0 μm region. The Ti3AlC2 thin film is sandwiched between two fiber ferrules and integrated into thulium doped fiber laser (TDFL) and thulium-holmium doped fiber laser (THDFL) cavities. Stable Q-switched pulses are observed at 1980.79 nm and 1959.3 nm in the TDFL and THDFL cavities respectively, with repetition rates of 32.57 kHz and 21.94 kHz and corresponding pulse widths of 2.72 μs and 3.9 μs for both cavities. The performance of the Ti3AlC2 based SA for Q-switching operation indicates the high potential of other MAX phase materials to serve as SAs in future photonics systems.
Highlights
Q-switched fiber lasers are highly desired laser sources for a wide number of applications due to their potential to produce high energy pulses for use in applications such as sensors[1], micromachining[2,3] and medical systems[4,5,6]
A pure polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film is first tested in both the thulium doped fiber laser (TDFL) and thulium-holmium doped fiber laser (THDFL) cavities to observe any pulse lasing existence, but only continuous wave (CW) lasing is observed even when the pump power is increased to its maximum
A maximum pump power of 112.55 mW is observed for the Q-switched operation of the TDFL, as any higher pump powers will result in significant fluctuations and instabilities of the pulses
Summary
Q-switched fiber lasers are highly desired laser sources for a wide number of applications due to their potential to produce high energy pulses for use in applications such as sensors[1], micromachining[2,3] and medical systems[4,5,6]. Thulium doped fiber lasers (TDFLs) and thulium-holmium doped fiber lasers (THDFLs) are typically used to develop high power and stable ultra-short pulses in the 2.0 μm region with wideband wavelength tuning[36,37,38,39] These pulses are generated by active methods, such as acoustic-optic modulators (AOMs)[40] or electric-optic modulators (EOMs)[41], though these cavities suffer from limitations due to their bulk, complex operation and expensive fabrication[42,43]. Q-switched pulse generation in TDFL and THDFL cavities using MAX phase thin film Ti3AlC2 based SAs are proposed and demonstrated. The presence of these elements with the absence of other impurities elements verify the formation of the Ti3AlC2 MAX phase
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