Passively Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser with mechanical exfoliation of 8-HQCDCL2H2O as saturable absorber

Abstract In this work, we have experimentally reported passively Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) by incorporating 8-Hydroxyquonolino cadmium chloride hydrate (8-HQCDCL2H2O) as saturable absorber (SA). The 8-HQCDCL2H2O SA was prepared by mechanical exfoliation using the scotch tape. The SA was then incorporated in two different EDFL’s cavity configurations having different output couplers. First, the fiber laser generated a high output power of 23.4 mW and pulse energy of 172 nJ by using a 50:50 output coupler in the EDFL setup. Then, after changing the output coupler from 50/50–95/05, the pulse width was reduced to 1.66 µs and repetition rate increased to 173 kHz. The variation in output power, pulse width and pulse repetition rate was observed with the change in output couplers. To the best of author`s knowledge, 8-HQCDCL2H2O is mechanically exfoliated for the first time to be used as SA.