Pulsed fiber lasers, with high peak power and narrow pulse widths, have been proven to be an important tool for a variety of fields of application. In this work, frontier and hot topics in pulsed fiber lasers were analyzed with 11,064 articles. Benefitting from the scientometric analysis capabilities of CiteSpace, the analysis found that passively mode-locked fiber lasers with saturable absorbers (SAs) based on two-dimensional (2D) materials have become a hot research topic in the field of pulsed fiber lasers due to the advantages of self-starting operation, high stability, and good compatibility. The excellent nonlinear optical properties exhibited by 2D materials at nanometer-scale thicknesses have become a particularly popular research topic; the research has paved the way for exploring its wider applications. We summarize the performance of several typical 2D materials in ultrafast fiber lasers, such as graphene, topological insulators (TIs), transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), and black phosphorus (BP). Meanwhile, we review and analyze the direction of the development of 2D SAs for ultrafast fiber lasers.

The magnetic nanomaterial Mn₃Si₂Te₆ is a promising option for spin-dependent electronic and magneto-optoelectronic devices. However, its application in nonlinear optics remains fanciful. Here, we demonstrate a pulsed Er-doped fiber laser (EDFL) based on a novel quasi-2D Mn₃Si₂Te₆ saturable absorber (SA) with low pump power at 1.5 μm. The high-quality Mn₃Si₂Te₆ crystals were synthesized by the self-flux method, and the ultrathin Mn₃Si₂Te₆ nanoflakes were prepared by a simple mechanical exfoliation procedure. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time laser pulses have been generated using quasi-2D Mn₃Si₂Te₆. A stable pulsed laser at 1562 nm with a low threshold pump power of 60 mW was produced by integrating the Mn₃Si₂Te₆ SA into an EDFL cavity. The maximum power of the output pulse is 783 μW. The repetition rate can vary from 24.16 to 44.44 kHz, with corresponding pulse durations of 5.64 to 3.41 µs. Our results indicate that the quasi-2D Mn₃Si₂Te₆ is a promising material for application in ultrafast photonics.

Non-mechanical beam steering is required for holographic displays, free-space optical communication, and chip-scale LiDAR. Optical phased arrays (OPAs), which allow for inertia-free, high-speed beam control via electronic phase control, are an important research topic. The present study investigates the primary material platform for on-chip OPAs: Liquid crystal OPAs (LC-OPAs) employ electrically tunable refractive indices for low-voltage operation; lithium niobate OPAs (LN-OPAs) utilize high electro-optic coefficients for high-speed, low-power consumption, and large-bandwidth operation; and silicon-based OPAs (Si-OPAs) apply mature photonic integration to achieve high integration density and GHz-range steering. The paper thoroughly examines OPA basics, recent material-specific advancements, performance benchmarks, outstanding issues, and future prospects.