Abstract
Two-dimensional (2D) materials, such as graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, and black phosphorus, have attracted intense interest for applications in ultrafast pulsed laser generation, owing to their strong light-matter interactions and large optical nonlinearities. However, due to the mismatch of the bandgap, many of these 2D materials are not suitable for applications at near-infrared (NIR) waveband. Here, we report nonlinear optical properties of 2D α-Mo2C crystals and the usage of 2D α-Mo2C as a new broadband saturable absorber for pulsed laser generation. It was found that 2D α-Mo2C crystals have excellent saturable absorption properties in terms of largely tunable modulation depth and very low saturation intensity. In addition, ultrafast carrier dynamic results of 2D α-Mo2C reveal an ultrashort intraband carrier recovery time of 0.48 ps at 1.55 μm. By incorporating 2D α-Mo2C saturable absorber into either an Er-doped or Yb-doped fiber laser, we are able to generate ultrashort pulses with very stable operation at central wavelengths of 1602.6 and 1061.8 nm, respectively. Our experimental results demonstrate that 2D α-Mo2C can be a promising broadband nonlinear optical media for ultrafast optical applications.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1808-1816 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | ACS Photonics |
Volume | 5 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 16 May 2018 |
Keywords
- 2D α-MoC crystal
- broadband
- fiber laser
- mode-locking
- saturable absorber