In this letter, a molybdenum disulfide (MoS ₂ ) saturable absorber (SA) is fabricated using a simple drop cast method to generate Q-switched fiber laser operating in the S-band region (1460 nm–1530 nm). The MoS ₂ solution was prepared using the liquid phase exfoliation (LPE) method where MoS ₂ crystals were added into dimethylformamide (DMF) solvent and subsequently sonicated and centrifuged. They were then repeatedly dripped onto fiber ferrules and dried in an oven. The resultant Q-switched fiber laser starts with some physical disturbance when the pump power was set at 40 mW and continues to operate until the pump power reaches 120 mW. The resultant repetition rate varies with pump power between 27.17 to 101.17 kHz while the changes in pulse widths are from 3.0 to 1.4 μ s.

In this work, we demonstrated Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT: PSS) as a saturable absorber (SA) to produce mode-locking operation in different length of Erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL). The PEDOT: PSS was embedded into polyvinyl alcohol to form a thin film that acts as an absorber into the laser setup. The three different mode-locked EDFL were successfully demonstrated with different cavity length and output coupler ratio. The pulse repetition rate/width of 3.417 MHz/710 fs, 4.831 MHz/510 fs, and 6.049 MHz/460 fs were obtained by utilizing optical coupler/ cavity length of 20:80/60.7 m, 10:90/42.7 m, and 5:95/33.7 m, respectively. All experiments generated a stable and mode-locked operation at a central wavelength of 1570.76 nm, 1570.3 nm, and 1569.95 nm with 3 dB bandwidth of 4.8 nm, 5.6 nm, and 6.5 nm, respectively. The long-time stability of the ultrafast fiber lasers was investigated for each setup via 120 min. The proposed PEDOT: PSS has proven as a promising material to induce mode-locking operation in different fiber laser setup.