ZrS2 as a saturable absorber for the b-cut Tm:YAP laser

Zirconium disulfide (ZrS 2 ) has gained significant interest as a two-dimensional semiconductor material due to its remarkable nonlinear optical performance. This study fabricated a ZrS 2 saturable absorber (SA) via liquid-phase exfoliation, and its nonlinear optical properties were evaluated using the I-scan technique. For the first time, to our knowledge, ZrS 2 was employed as an SA to realize a stable 1934 nm passively Q-switching Tm:YAP laser with modulation functionality. At an absorbed pumping power of 3.4 W, the laser generates the shortest pulse width of 590 ns at a pulse repetition frequency of 82.03 kHz, corresponding to a peak power of 8 W. Additionally, the M 2 factors of the output laser were measured as M x 2 =1.04 and M y 2 =1.07, indicating excellent beam quality. This study confirms the significant potential of ZrS 2 as a high-performance SA for 2 µm pulse generation.