Diode-pumped Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:Gd 0.3Lu 0.33Y 0.37VO 4 laser with EO modulator and single-walled carbon nanotube

Abstract

By using both the single-walled carbon nanotube saturable absorber (SWCNT-SA) and the electro-optic (EO) modulator, the stably doubly Q-switched and mode-locked (QML) operation of Nd:Gd 0.3Lu 0.33Y 0.37VO 4 laser has been demonstrated. The QML laser characteristics such as the pulse width, single-pulse energy, etc., have been measured for different modulation frequencies of the EO modulator ( f e ) and reflectivity ( R) of output coupler. In comparison with the solely passively QML laser with SWCNT-SA, the experimental results show that the doubly QML laser can generate more stable and shorter pulses with higher pulse energy. At 9.24 W pump power, f e =1 kHz and R=93.5%, the doubly QML laser has compressed the Q-switched envelope pulse width 88% and improved the mode-locked pulsed energy 55 times.