Ultrafast fiber lasers at 1560 nm and 1932 nm modulated by WC nanoparticles and d-shaped fibers

Abstract

Tungsten carbide nanoparticles (WCNs), as a kind of transition metal carbides, have exhibited extraordinary optoelectronic properties and aroused enormous attention. However, few reports have been focused on the nonlinear properties and relevant devices. In this study, we first demonstrated a novel saturable absorber (SA) prepared by the deposition of WCNs onto a d-shaped fiber (DF). The WCNs with an average size of 80 nm were prepared through a hydrothermal method. Combined with the DF, the WCNs-DF SA exhibited high robustness and broadband saturable absorption response. As the same SA was inserted into Er3+ or Tm3+-doped laser cavities, ultrafast pulses were generated with central wavelengths of 1560 nm and 1932 nm. Our experimental results verified that the integrated WCNs-DF device possessed great potential as a nonlinear optical medium for high-performance ultrafast optical applications.