Mode-locked Er-doped fiber laser based on ZrSe2 saturable absorber

In this study, zirconium selenide (ZrSe2) was successfully prepared as the saturable absorber in an erbium-doped fiber laser for demonstrating mode-locked operation, for which the saturation intensity and modulation depth were 10.12 MW cm−2 and 23.10%, respectively. The narrower pulse width of mode-locked operation was 1.27 ps. The maximum average output power and pulse energy were 16.75 mW and 3.75 nJ, which were significant improvements for a ZrSe2-based fiber laser. Our study results further proved that ZrSe2, as an ultra-fast optical device, has excellent performance in ultra-short pulse fiber lasers.