Titanium tin carbide as saturable absorber in C-band fiber laser

In this work, the Q-switched Erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) is visualized using Ti₂SnC as saturable absorber. The thin layer of Ti₂SnC is mechanically exfoliated from a bulk material and pasted onto a fiber ferrule and integrated into EDFL by sandwiched method. The proposed Q-switched EDFL successfully achieved a stable pulse train, and the smallest pulse width of 1.26 µs and the highest pulse energy of 43.76 nJ are obtained at low operational pump power of 110 mW. The pulse energy obtained is comparable to other metal-ceramic based SA, with relatively low pump power. Owing to the strength of thermal shock resistance and oxidation resistant, the proposed saturable absorber is more feasible to cater the commercialization requirements. (author)