Magnetron-sputtering deposited molybdenum carbide MXene thin films as a saturable absorber for passively Q-switched lasers

In this study, MXene molybdenum carbide (Mo2C) thin films were fabricated by the magnetron sputtering method to systematically study their optical properties and application in solid-state passively Q-switched pulsed laser generation. The fabricated (Mo2C) thin films exhibited large nonlinear saturable absorption with a modulation depth of 10.39% and 8.89% at the central wavelengths of 1064 and 1342 nm, respectively. By incorporating the Mo2C saturable absorber (Mo2C-SA) into two Nd-doped solid-state lasers, short pulses were generated with a pulse duration/pulse energy/average output power of 136 ns/2.09 mu J/547 mW and 222 ns/1.41 mu J/236 mW in the 1064 nm and 1342 nm regimes, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, for the first time, the Mo2C two dimensional (2D) material was used in passively Q-switched solid-state lasers. Our experimental results demonstrate that 2D Mo2C can be a promising broadband nonlinear optical medium for optical applications.