We demonstrated a high-repetition-rate Q-switched fiber laser with topological insulator Bi₂Se₃ absorber. The absorber was made into a film structure by spin-coating method using few-layer Bi₂Se₃ nano-platelets which had regular shape. The uniform film had a low saturable optical intensity of 11 MW/cm(2), which is the lowest saturable optical intensity in the saturable absorbers made by topological insulator till now. By inserting the absorber film into an Erbium-doped fiber laser, a high-repetition Q-switched laser with the repetition rates from 459 kHz to 940 kHz was achieved. The maximum output power was 22.35 mW with the shortest pulse duration of 1.9 μs. To the best of our knowledge, both of the repetition rate and the output power were the highest values among the Q-switched fiber lasers with topological insulator absorber.

We demonstrated an all-normal-dispersion Yb-doped mode-locked fiber laser based on Bi₂Se₃ topological insulator (TI). Different from previous TI-mode-locked fiber lasers in which TIs were mixed with film-forming agent, we used a special way to paste a well-proportioned pure TI on a fiber end-facet. In this way, the effect of the film-forming agent could be removed, thus the heat deposition was relieved and damage threshold could be improved. The modulation depth of the Bi₂Se₃ film was measured to be 5.2%. When we used the Bi₂Se₃ film in the Yb-doped fiber laser, the mode locked pulses with pulse energy of 0.756 nJ, pulse width of 46 ps and the repetition rate of 44.6 MHz were obtained. The maximum average output power was 33.7 mW. When the pump power exceeded 270 mW, the laser can operate in multiple pulse state that six-pulse regime can be realized. This contribution indicates that Bi₂Se₃ has an attractive optoelectronic property at 1μm waveband.

We demonstrate a femtosecond erbium-doped fibre laser operating in the long wavelength band (L-band) in which topological insulator Bi 2 Se 3 -polyvinyl alcohol film is applied as a saturable absorber. It generates a ~360 fs soliton pulse at 1600 nm with a repetition rate of 35.45 MHz. To the best of our knowledge, this is the shortest pulse duration ever achieved with an L-band design employing Bi 2 Se 3 as a saturable absorber. The result shows topological insulator Bi 2 Se 3 could be a promising candidate to generate L-band ultrafast pulses for practical applications.

We demonstrated an all-normal-dispersion Yb-doped mode-locked fiber laser based on tungsten disulphide (WS 2 ). The saturable absorbers (SA) were made by mixing WS 2 solution with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), and then evaporated on a substrate. The modulation depth of the WS 2 film was 2.06% and the saturable optical intensity was 71.6 MW cm −2 . When the WS 2 film was inserted into the fiber laser, the mode-locked pulses with pulse width of 2.5 ns and repetition rate of 2.84 MHz were obtained. As the pump power increased to 350 mW, the maximum output power was measured to be 8.02 mW. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time to realize mode-locked pulses based on WS 2 -SA at 1 μm waveband.

We present a passively Q-switched Yb:KGW laser based on a transmission-type saturable absorber of topological insulator: Bi2Se3. The saturable absorber is prepared on a 0.17-mm glass substrate and can translate intra-cavity for best performance nearly without influence on the laser mode. At a maximum pump power of 13.7 W, the central wavelength, pulse duration, repetition rate, and pulse energy of Q-switched pulse are 1043 nm, 1.5 μs, 175.4 kHz, 6.39 μJ, respectively. The maximum output power is 1.12 W. To our knowledge, this is the highest average output power from passively Q-switched lasers with topological insulator saturable absorbers.