Mode-Locked Er-Doped Fiber Laser by Using MoS2/SiO2 Saturable Absorber

The two-dimensional (2D) layered material MoS2 has attracted numerous attentions for electronics and optoelectronics applications. In this work, a novel type of MoS2-doped sol-gel glass composite material is prepared. The nonlinear optical properties of prepared MoS2/SiO2 composite material are measured with modulation depth (ΔT) of 3.5% and saturable intensity (Isat) of 20.15 MW/cm2. The optical damage threshold is 3.46 J/cm2. Using the MoS2/SiO2 composite material as saturable absorber (SA), a passive mode-locked Er-doped fiber (EDF) laser is realized. Stable conventional soliton mode-locking pulses are successfully generated with a pulse width of 780 fs at the pump power of 90 mW. In the pump power range of 100–600 mW, another stable mode-locking operation is obtained. The pulse width is 1.21 ps and the maximum output power is 5.11 mW. The results indicate that MoS2/SiO2 composite materials could offer a new way for optical applications.