Application of Pr-MOFs as saturable absorbers in ultrafast photonics

Abstract

As a newly synthesized metal–organic framework (MOF) material, Pr-MOFs have been theoretically predicted by researchers to have excellent optical response and nonlinear absorption properties. However, using Pr-MOFs for ultrafast photonics has yet to be reported. In this study, a Pr-MOFs-based saturable absorber (SA) was applied as a mode-locked device in an erbium-doped fiber laser, and mode-locked pulses, harmonic mode-locked pulses, and nanosecond pulses were obtained. The Pr-MOFs-based SA was successfully prepared using the direct coupling technique, and the balanced twin-detector technique acquired a modulation depth of 2.41%. Mode-locked pulses with a pulse width of 1.261 ps and harmonic mode-locked pulses with a pulse width of 1.538 ps, in addition to nanosecond pulses with a pulse width of 37.17 ns, were generated using Pr-MOFs-based SAs. Our work demonstrates the nonlinear optical properties of Pr-MOFs and broadens their application in the field of ultrafast photonics.