Low-Threshold, Multiple High-Order Harmonics Fiber Laser Employing Cr2Si2Te6 Saturable Absorber

Nannan Xu; Xinxin Shang; Shuo Sun; Fuhao Yang; Weiyu Fan; Huanian Zhang; Dengwang Li

doi:10.3390/nano13061038

Low-Threshold, Multiple High-Order Harmonics Fiber Laser Employing Cr₂Si₂Te₆ Saturable Absorber

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2023 Mar 14;13(6):1038. doi: 10.3390/nano13061038.

Authors

Nannan Xu^{1

2}, Xinxin Shang^{1

2}, Shuo Sun³, Fuhao Yang³, Weiyu Fan³, Huanian Zhang³, Dengwang Li^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Shandong Province Key Laboratory of Medical Physics and Image Processing Technology, School of Physics and Electronics, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250014, China.
² Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optics and Photonic Device, School of Physics and Electronics, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250014, China.
³ School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo 255049, China.

Abstract

Abundant research findings have proved the value of two-dimensional (2D) materials in the study of nonlinear optics in fiber lasers. However, there remains two problems: how to reduce the start-up threshold, and how to improve the damage threshold, of fiber lasers based on 2D materials. A 15.1 mW low-threshold mode-locked fiber laser, based on a Cr₂Si₂Te₆ saturable absorber (SA) prepared by the liquid-phase exfoliation method, is demonstrated successfully in this work. This provides a useful and economical method to produce SAs with low insertion loss and low saturation intensity. Besides, multiple high-order harmonics, from the fundamental frequency (12.6 MHz) to the 49th-order harmonic (617.6 MHz), mode-locked operations are recorded. The experimental results indicate the excellent potential of Cr₂Si₂Te₆ as an optical modulator in exploring the soliton dynamics, harmonic mode locking, and other nonlinear effects in fiber lasers.

Keywords: 2D material; harmonic mode locking; low-threshold fiber laser.

Abstract

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