The performance of Ti₂C MXene and Ti₂AlC MAX Phase as saturable absorbers for passively mode-locked fiber laser

This research provides feasibility investigations of Ti₂C MXene and Ti₂AlC MAX Phase materials to be used as saturable absorbers (SAs). The fabrication procedure for both SAs has been described in this paper, where both laser parameters of Ti₂C MXene and Ti₂AlC MAX Phase were compared in detail. Ti₂C MXene deposited tapered fiber has a modulation depth of 4.7% and saturation intensity of 0.98 MW/cm², whereas Ti₂AlC MAX Phase deposited tapered fiber has corresponding values of 3.27%, 0.86 MW/cm², respectively. The findings shows that Ti₂C MXene can provide a stable mode-locked operation with pulse width of 1.655 ps and optical bandwidth of 2.57 nm at a center wavelength of 1933.82 nm. Similarly, the Ti₂AlC MAX Phase produced the corresponding values of 1.382 ps, 2.75 nm, and 1894.54 nm, respectively. Additionally, Ti₂C MXene appeared to be a better candidate based on a higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) value of 70 dB as compared to that of Ti₂AlC MAX Phase at 66 dB when operating in a thulium-holmium doped fiber laser (THDFL). The Ti₂C MXene and Ti₂AlC MAX Phase based SAs have significant potential for photonics applications in the “eye-safe” region.