MAX phase based saturable absorber for mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser

•Mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser with MAX phase Ti3AlC2 as saturable absorber.•The MAX phase embedded in PVA exhibits a saturable absorption of 2%.•The mode-locked captured owns an ultrashort pulse of 3.68 ps at 1557.77 nm.•The maximum peak power was 2.2 kW at the pump power of 131 mW. We presented an ultrashort pulse generation in an erbium-doped fiber laser cavity using MAX-PVA as a mode-locker. A thin film of SA was prepared by mixing PVA with Ti3AlC2 as a saturable absorber inside the laser cavity. The optical nonlinearity was also demonstrated, revealing a saturable absorption of 2%, a non-saturable absorption of 58.2%, and a saturation intensity of 1.63 MW/cm2. The excellencies of MAX-PVA was proven as it initiates ultrafast laser with a duration of 3.68 ps corresponds to a repetition rate of 1.887 MHz. The ease of preparation, together with its superior optical, physical, thermal, and mechanical properties, makes it a favorable SA for pulse generation in an all-fiberized laser cavity.