Abstract
Large-energy mode-locked fiber lasers are extensively studied due to their indispensable use in various fields and applications. Recently, ferromagnetic insulators have attracted tremendous research interest in ultra-fast photonics because of their unique ferromagnetic properties and typical layered structure. In our work, Cr2Si2Te6 nanosheets are prepared and utilized as a saturable absorber (SA) in a large-energy mode-locked erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser. With a total cavity length of 240 m, a stable mode-locked operation characterized by maximum pulse energy as high as 244.76 nJ with a repetition rate of 847.64 kHz is achieved. When the cavity length is extended to 390 m, the output maximum pulse energy is successfully scaled up to 325.50 nJ. To our knowledge, this is the largest pulse energy and highest output power level to be achieved in mode-locked fiber lasers by two-dimensional (2D) material saturable absorbers (SAs) so far. This work not only makes a forward step to the investigation of the generation of large-energy pulses in mode-locked fiber lasers but also fully proves that the ferromagnetic insulator-Cr2Si2Te6 possesses an excellent nonlinear absorption property, antioxidant capacity in ambient conditions, as well as outstanding thermal stability, which enriches our insight into 2D materials.
Highlights
Reliable, ultrafast fiber lasers are one of the most sought-after applications due to the advantages of their miniaturization, compact structure, and high reliability [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]
Under the conditions of Cr2Si2Te6-saturable absorber (SA) being absent in the cavity, no mode-locked phenomenon is observed no matter how the pump power and PC are tuned in the whole range
The prepared Cr2Si2Te6-polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) SA is inserted into the laser cavity
Summary
Ultrafast fiber lasers are one of the most sought-after applications due to the advantages of their miniaturization, compact structure, and high reliability [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. In 2019, Guo et al prepared a ferromagnetic insulator-Cr2 Ge2 Te6 polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) thin-film By applying it to an EDF laser as SA, stable mode-locked pulses with a pulse duration of 550 fs were achieved [35]. As expected, when the cavity length is extended to 390 m, the maximum pulse energy is successfully increased up to 325.50 nJ To our knowledge, this is the largest pulse energy as well as the highest output power level reported in mode-locked fiber lasers modulated by 2D material SAs so far. Our experiment provides references for further research on large-energy mode-locked fiber lasers as well as enriches the insight into 2D materials
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