| Summary: | In this paper, we demonstrate an all polarization maintaining (PM) Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser based on tungsten diselenide-polyvinyl alcohol (WSe<sub>2</sub>-PVA) saturable absorber (SA) and investigated the stability of WSe<sub>2</sub>-PVA SA in the laser. The all PM cavity isolated the environmental perturbation on the cavity birefringence so that the evolution of material properties of WSe<sub>2</sub>-PVA SA during the Q-switched operation can be investigated based on the laser output. It is found that when heat accumulation reached a certain level in WSe<sub>2</sub>-PVA SA, PVA in SA would first melt and perturb the transmission of SA; then, WSe<sub>2</sub> in SA would be quickly damaged, resulting in a permanent increase of the SA loss. This work will benefit the research on obtaining a long-term stable all PM Q-switched lasers based on 2-D material saturable absorber.
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