Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser operating at 1502 nm with molybdenum disulfide saturable absorber

We demonstrate a Q-switched Erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) using a molybdenum disulfide (MoS2)-based saturable absorber (SA) as a Q-switcher. The SA is prepared from commercial available MoS2 pristine flakes with final solution concentration of similar to 0.02mg/ ml. The Q-switcher is assembled by depositing a dried MoS2 onto a fiber ferule facet before it is matched with another clean ferrule via a connector. By increasing the pump power from 120 mW to 160 mW, stable generation of Q-switched EDFL incorporating MoS2 SA has been obtained at 1502 nm wavelength. The pulse repetition rate also varies from 45.2 kHz to 66.0 kHz with pulse width which is increased from 2.73 mu s to 3.19 mu s. At pump power of 160 mW, we successfully generated the maximum average output power of 0.51 mW, corresponding to a pulse energy of 7.8 nJ.