Few-layer NiPS3 as a saturable absorber for pulse laser generation

In the past decade, two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted increasing attention due to their energy band structure, optical properties and excellent performance in ultrafast photonics and nonlinear optics. As a kind of new 2D ternary layered material, NiPS₃ can exhibit more novel electrical, optical and magnetic properties compared with those unary and binary 2D layered materials because of higher chemical diversity and structural complexity. In this work, we demonstrated a passively Q-switched operation based on few-layer NiPS₃ as a saturable absorber (SA) in an erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser. And the Q-switched output was achieved when the pump power at 40~105 mW. To our best of knowledge, it is the first time to utilize the NiPS₃ as a SA in pulse laser generation.