Soliton interaction in a MXene-based mode-locked fiber laser

MXenes are a class of two-dimensional layered structure ternary metal carbide or/and nitride materials. Recently, the MXene V2CTx has demonstrated excellent long-term stability, strong saturable absorption, and fast optical-switching capability, used to generate Q-switched and ultrashort pulsed lasers. However, bound-state fiber lasers based on V2CTx have not been reported yet. In this study, V2CTx is combined with a D-shaped fiber to form a saturable absorber device, whose modulation depth is measured to be 1.6%. By inserting the saturable absorber into an Er-doped fiber laser, bound states with different soliton separation and munbers are successfully obtained. Additionally, bound states with a compound soliton structure, such as the (2 + 2)-and (2 + 1)-type, are also realized. Our findings show that V2CTx can be developed as an efficient ultrafast photonics candidate to further understand the complex nonlinear dynamics of bound-state pulses in fiber lasers.(c) 2023 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement

Automated summary

In this study, V2CTx is combined with a fiber to create a bound-state fiber laser, which successfully generates different types of bound states and compound soliton structures. These findings demonstrate the potential of V2CTx as an efficient ultrafast photonics material.