Mid-infrared mode-locked pulse generation with multilayer black phosphorus as saturable absorber

A mid-infrared saturable absorber mirror is successfully fabricated by transferring the mechanically exfoliated black phosphorus onto the gold-coated mirror. With the as-prepared black phosphorus saturable absorber mirror, a continuous-wave passively mode-locked Er: ZBLAN fiber laser is demonstrated at the wavelength of 2.8 mu m, which delivers a maximum average output power of 613 mW, a repetition rate of 24 MHz, and a pulse duration of 42 ps. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a black phosphorus mode-locked laser at 2.8 mu m wavelength has been demonstrated. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of black phosphorus flake as a new two-dimensional material for application in mid-infrared ultrafast photonics. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America