Study on Saturable Absorption Characteristics of Bi2Se3 Topological Insulators with Film Thickness Dependence and Its Laser Application

Abstract

In our work, a multi-layer topological insulator (TI) Bi2Se3 thin film was prepared by the chemical vapor deposition method (CVD), and its saturable absorption and damage characteristics were experimentally studied. The results show that when the wavelength is 1064 nm, the saturable absorption parameters of TI: Bi2Se3 film, including modulation depth αs, non-saturable loss αns, and saturation power intensity Isat, increase with the increase in film thickness, and the damage threshold is inversely proportional to the film thickness. The thicker the film layer, the lower the damage threshold. Among them, modulation depth αs is up to 51.2%, minimum non-saturable loss αns is 1.8%, maximum saturation power intensity Isat is 560.8 kW/cm2, and the damage threshold is up to 909 MW/cm2. The influence of the controllable thickness of TI: Bi2Se3 film on passive Q-switching and mode-locking performance of laser is discussed and analyzed when TI: Bi2Se3 film is prepared by the CVD method as a saturable absorber (SA). Finally, the performance of TI: Bi2Se3 thin film applied to nanosecond laser isolation at the 1064 nm band is simulated and analyzed. It has the natural advantage of polarization independence, and the maximum isolation can reach 16.4 dB.