Zirconium carbide (ZrC), a novel representative of the MXene family, has attracted considerable interest because of its outstanding physicochemical properties and potential applications in optoelectronic devices. For improving its performance as an optical modulator for ultrashort lasers, there is a call to continue studying the nonlinear optical behavior of MXene ZrC. Herein, for the first time, MXene ZrC films were fabricated on fused silica by magnetron sputtering deposition technology and used as a saturable absorber (SA) optical modulator in a passive Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. The saturation absorption behaviors of the prepared ZrC films were characterized by the Z-scan method. Their morphology, band structure, damage threshold, carrier recovery time, and saturation absorption properties were analyzed. The experimental results show that the MXene ZrC SA films exhibit excellent nonlinear optical characteristics, with a saturation intensity of 48.4 MW/cm2, a large modulation depth of 6.9%, and an ultrashort recovery time of 2.72 ps. In addition, the damage threshold of MXene ZrC SA films was estimated to be greater than 0.2516 J/cm2. By integrating the ZrC SA film optical modulator into the oscillator of the Nd:YAG laser, we achieved stable operation of the Q-switched laser with a central wavelength at 1.06 μm, with the shortest pulse width of 78 ns. The results of this study demonstrate the potential use of MXene ZrC SA films as optical modulators in ultrashort lasers.
Keywords: MXene ZrC films; Q-switched laser; damage threshold; nonlinear optics; saturable absorber.