Generation of dark solitons in erbium-doped fiber laser based on black phosphorus nanoparticles

We demonstrate the generation of dark solitons (DSs) in erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser based on black phosphorus nanoparticles (BPNPs) for the first time. The side-polished fiber deposited with BPNPs is embedded into the laser to enhance the birefringence and nonlinearity of the laser cavity. In the paper, the saturable absorption property of BPNPs with an optical modulation depth of 5.7% and a saturable intensity of 21.7 MW/cm2 are experimentally illustrated. After inserting the BPNPs saturable absorber (SA) into EDF laser, the DSs with repetition rate of 14.68 MHz are obtained at a pump power of 90 mW. Our results prove that the BPNPs are the promising candidate materials for generating DSs in EDF laser.