High-damage-threshold mid-infrared saturable absorber enabled by tantalum carbide nanoparticles

• DOI: 10.1364/ol.494970
• Publication Date: 2023-07-10T13:00:18Z
• Authors: RuiTing Zhou; Jing Huang; DongYang Liu; Yuan He; Ning Li; LingLing Yang; Jun Yi; Lili Miao; Chujun Zhao
• Keywords: 02 engineering and technology; 0210 nano-technology

A stable mid-infrared saturable absorber with a high damage threshold is urgently required for high-performance optical modulation in the mid-infrared regime. Here, we demonstrate stable mid-infrared erbium-doped fiber laser generation modulated by tantalum carbide nanoparticles (TaC NPs) experimentally. The TaC NPs show high physicochemical stability, obvious nonlinear optical absorption, and a high damage threshold. By introducing the TaC-based saturable absorber into an erbium-doped fiber laser, stable nanosecond pulses can be successfully delivered with a minimum pulse duration of 575 ns and signal-to-noise ratio of over 40 dB. The experimental results show that TaC NPs can act as a stable mid-infrared pulse modulator, and may make inroads for developing highly stable broadband optoelectronic devices.