Q-Switched Pulse Generation in Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser Cavity with Vanadium Aluminum Carbide Absorber

• Published in: Journal of Russian laser research Vol. 43; no. 6; pp. 702 - 707
• Main Authors: Ghafar, Nurul Athirah M. A., Zulkipli, Nur Farhanah, Omar, Suziana, Markom, Arni Munira, Yasin, Moh, Harun, Sulaiman Wadi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01-11-2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Absorbers; Aluminum carbide; Doped fibers; Erbium; Fiber lasers; Lasers; Microwaves; Optical Devices; Optics; Photonics; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Polyvinyl alcohol; Pulse duration; Q switched lasers; RF and Optical Engineering; switching; saturable absorber; TiO; colloids; passive; energy efficiency
• ISSN: 1071-2836; 1573-8760
• DOI: 10.1007/s10946-022-10097-4

We report the feasibility of vanadium aluminum carbide (V
2
AlC) for implementation as a saturable absorber (SA) for
Q
-switched pulse generation in Erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) cavity. The V
2
AlC, a MAX phase material is successfully combined with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to form a SA film for use in generating stable
Q
-switched pulses operating at 1559 nm with a maximum repetition rate of 53.55 kHz and a minimum pulse width of 2.54 μs. The maximum pulse energy equal to 57.14nJ is recorded at a 71.5 mW pump power. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of EDFL passive
Q
-switching using V
2
AlC absorber.