Stable soliton pulse generation from a SnSe2-based mode-locked fiber laser

•The high quality SnSe2-PVA film was prepared by the liquid-phase exfoliation method.•Stable soliton pulse was obtained with the SnSe2-PVA film as saturable absorber.•The pulse peak power is much higher than that of other reported mode-locked fiber lasers based on SnSe2. Based on an as-prepared high-quality tin diselenide-polyvinyl alcohol (SnSe2-PVA) film, a stable passively erbium-doped (Er-doped) soliton mode-locked fiber laser at 1561.38 nm was realized. The output performances were investigated experimentally. At the pump power of 310 mW, the shortest pulse duration of 1.197 ps was obtained with a fundamental frequency of 3.45 MHz, corresponding to the peak power of 317 W, which is much higher than previous reports of SnSe2 mode-locked fiber lasers. The results show that SnSe2 can offer an exciting platform for stable high peak power and ultrashort pulse generation.