Cr:ZnS saturable absorber passively Q-switched Tm,Ho:GdVO_4 laser

Abstract

A passively Q-switched Tm,Ho:GdVO4 laser operating at cryogenic temperature with a Cr(2+):ZnS saturable absorber pumped with continuous wave LDs was demonstrated. The performance of the laser was investigated through changing the distance between Cr(2+):ZnS and output coupler. The maximum pulse energy of 70.5 μJ was obtained at 10 W input power. The maximum average output power of PQS laser was up to 3.2 W at the pump power of 22.8 W, corresponding to CW output power of 7.4 W, pulse repetition frequency of 52 kHz, and a pulse width of 389 ns. The M(2) factor measured by the traveling knife-edge method was ~1.1 in x and y directions with near-diffraction limited beam quality.

Passively Q-switched tri-wavelength Yb^3+:GdAl_3(BO_3)_4 solid-state laser with topological insulator Bi_2Te_3 as saturable absorber

“…For decades, many successful Q-switched lasers have been realized by exploiting a variety of SAs such as transitionelement-doped (Cr 4 [7,8], V 3 [9,10], and Co 2 [11]) host materials and semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs) [12][13][14][15]. However, it should be noted that the applications of these traditional SAs are somehow limited due to their narrow absorption band and high cost.…”

Highly efficient passivelyQ-switched Tm,Ho:GdVO4laser with kilowatt peak power

“…15 Therefore, the fraction of the excited population stored in upper laser level 5 I 7 is obviously increased. 19 We have also realized a PQS Tm,Ho:YVO 4 laser with Cr:ZnS SA, and the maximum pulse energy of 3.5 μJ was obtained. The vanadate crystals have been demonstrated to be good laser hosts with large absorption/emission cross-section, wide absorption width, high thermal conductivity, low thermal-optic coefficient, and thermal expansion coefficient.…”

Dual-wavelength, passively Q-switched Tm:YAP laser with black phosphorus saturable absorber

“…Passive Q-switching with saturable absorbers (SAs) is a general technique to generate energetic pulses from crystal or fiber lasers. For 1.9 −2.0 μm operation, semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs) [2], Cr:ZnSe and Cr:ZnS [3] have been extensively employed as a consequence of their excellent mechanical stability and compactness. However, the application of SESAMs is limited by the shortcomings of complicated and expensive manufacturing as well as the narrow absorption bandwidths.…”