Nanosecond mid-infrared pulse generation modulated by platinum ditelluride nanosheets

Abstract

Abstract We demonstrated the generation of nanosecond mid-infrared (MIR) pulse from an Er3+-doped ZrF4-BaF2-LaF3-AlF3-NaF (ZBLAN) fiber laser modulated by platinum ditelluride nanosheets experimentally. The platinum ditelluride nanosheets exhibit strong nonlinear absorption with the saturation intensity 46.5 GW cm−2 and modulation depth 27.8% at 2.8 μm wavelength, respectively. With the saturable absorber mirror fabricated by depositing the platinum ditelluride nanosheets on a gold mirror, we have obtained the stable Q-switched pulses with repetition rate of 173.4 kHz and pulse duration of 600 ns at 2.8 μm wavelength under the pump power of 5.6 W. In addition, the maximum average output power and pulse energy reach 591 mW and 3.41 μJ, respectively. The experimental results confirm that the platinum ditelluride nanosheets exhibit excellent nonlinear optical behavior towards the MIR spectral range, and may make inroads towards MIR photonics with group-10 transition-metal dichalcogenides.