Mixed Transition Metal Dichalcogenide as Saturable Absorber in Ytterbium, Praseodymium, and Erbium Fiber Laser

In this paper, a Mo
_(1-x)
W
_x
S
₂
thin film saturable absorber (SA) is proposed and fabricated and its performance over a wavelength region of 1.0 to 1. 5μm investigated. The few layer MoWS
₂
is obtained by hydrothermal exfoliation and fabricated into thin film with a host polymer. The SA is tested in a ring laser cavity with different gain media consisting of Ytterbium, Praseodymium, and Erbium doped fibers for Q-switching operation at 1.0, 1.3, and 1.56 μm. In all cases, the SA performs admirably with the mixed transition metal composition of the MoWS
₂
thin film allowing the optical properties of the SA to be altered by changing the composition ratio and the number of layers. The proposed SA has high potential as a new optical material to cater the needs of many optoelectronics application.