Passively Q-switched fiber laser using PtS2 microflakes saturable absorber

The passive Q-switching technique with saturable absorber (SA) offers a simple, low-cost, compact, and reliable way to produce Q-switching pulses. Novel two-dimensional (2D) layered nanomaterials have recently gained... [ view full abstract ]

The passive Q-switching technique with saturable absorber (SA) offers a simple, low-cost, compact, and reliable way to produce Q-switching pulses. Novel two-dimensional (2D) layered nanomaterials have recently gained significant attention on pulsed laser applications due to their excellent optoelectronic properties. Nevertheless, fabrication of nanoscale materials always requires huge energy consumption, complicated preparation techniques, and high expertise. Substituting low-cost bulk- or micro-sized counterparts with similar performance for nanoscale materials provides an alternative solution. A recent developed group-10 2D layered material, Platinum disulfide (PtS₂), exhibits encouraging prospects for the laser photonic applications owing to its good stability, great carrier mobility, and broad tunable bandgap energy. In this work, the passively Q-switched Erbium-doped fiber laser with PtS₂ microflakes SA is firstly introduced with an operational wavelength of 1568.8 nm. The SA is fabricated by exfoliating PtS₂ bulk powder in N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) solvent then incorporated it into polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) polymer thin film. The stable Q-switched signals corresponding to 1.1 mW of the maximum average output power, 24.6 kHz of repetition rate, 4.2 μs of pulse duration, and 45.6 nJ of single pulse energy, comparable to MoS₂ and WS₂, are successfully obtained in a fiber laser ring cavity with this PtS₂-SA. These promising results may contribute to further development of optical applications of this novel PtS₂ or other group-10 2D materials.