Effect of MAX phase chromium aluminum carbide thin film thickness on Q-switched Erbium-doped fiber lasers

In recent years, chromium aluminum carbide (Cr₂AlC) has gained attention because of its good performance in terms of high-temperature resistance, transparency and conductivity. Therefore, it has been widely used in solar cells, photonics and electronics. Although some related characteristics are investigated in pulse lasers, the effect of thin film thickness in generating laser pulses have not been reported. Therefore, the effect of thin film thickness on the performance of Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) is explored in this work. Two films of different thicknesses were applied to generate Q-switched laser pulses. The thickness of the films were about 45 µm and 16 µm and they were prepared by a casting method with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The effects of two different film thicknesses on laser performance were investigated separately. The results show that the film thickness affects the modulation depth, saturation intensity and insertion loss of SA, which in turn effects the Q-switched laser pulses.