Molybdenum gallium carbide coated D-shape fiber for nanosecond dark pulse generation in erbium-doped fiber laser

Abstract Molybdenum gallium carbide (Mo 2 Ga 2 C), a material belongs to MAX phase group, has garnered significant interest in a wide range of scientific field, including material science, engineering, and laser physics. It is chemically and structurally promising since it exhibits a low shear modulus, superconducting behaviour, and high mechanical stability. Here, we prepared a saturable absorber (SA) based on Mo 2 Ga 2 C coated D-shape fiber using solution casting technique. It exhibits outstanding saturable absorption of 7.2%, allowing it to generate dark pulse laser in an erbium-doped fiber laser cavity. We analyzed the laser’s performance and obtained a dark pulse with a pulse energy, peak power, and average output power of 3.9 nJ, 27.5 mW, and 7.3 mW, respectively. This foundational work may introduce a new material as an alternative SA device in fiber laser cavity.