Ultrashort pulse generation using tantalum aluminum carbide as a pulse modulator

This paper investigates the use of tantalum aluminum carbide (Ta₂AlC) as a passive pulse modulator for generating ultrafast mode-locked pulses in an erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser cavity. The Ta₂AlC modulator was prepared via an embedding method using polyvinyl alcohol as the host matrix, exhibiting a saturable absorption of 6.9% with a saturable intensity of 100 MW/cm². When integrated into a long EDF laser cavity, the modulator enabled the generation of a picosecond soliton pulse train. Operating within a pump range of 95.2 to 210.62 mW, the self-starting mode-locked EDF laser achieved a central wavelength of 1561.7 nm, a repetition rate of 1.866 MHz, and a pulse width of 3.80 ps. These findings demonstrate that Ta₂AlC is an effective passive modulator for ultrafast laser generation through mode locking.