Nickel disulfide saturable absorber as q-switcher in erbium-doped fiber laser cavity

Abstract

Q-switched pulse generation has been successfully demonstrated in Erbium doped fiber laser (EDFL) cavity by using Nickel disulfide Poly(vinyl alcohol) (NiS2 PVA) film as a passive saturable absorber (SA). The NiS2 SA was successfully fabricated by uncomplicated and cost-efficient ultrasonic liquid exfoliation and follow by incorporating into polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) polymer to form a NiS2-PVA composite thin film SA. Q-switched pulse operation was obtained at low threshold pump power of 25.6 mW. The Q-switched EDFL operated at 1564.8 nm with repetition rate tunable from 48.1 kHz to 85.5 kHz when the pump power is varied from 25.6 mW to 71.5 mW. The minimum pulse width and highest achieved single pulse energy are 5.85 µs and 114.7 nJ, respectively at pump power of 71.5 mW. This result shows that the NiS2 has immerse potential for photonic applications.