Passively Q-Switched Yb:Lu0.74Y0.23La0.01VO4 Laser Based on MoTe2 Saturable Absorber

Ruijun Lan,Bin Zhao,Dezhong Cao,Yingjie Shen,Cheng Ren,Penghua Mu

doi:10.1109/access.2019.2948633

Abstract

A passively-Q-switched Yb:Lu 1-x-y Y x La y VO 4 laser based on a two-dimension (2D) molybdenum ditelluride (MoTe 2 ) saturable absorber (SA) is reported for the first time to the best of our knowledge. High quality few layered 2D MoTe 2 nanosheets were fabricated by liquid phase exfoliation (LPE) method and used as the SA, whose saturable absorption properties around 1.0 μm were characterized with a saturation fluence of 3.02 μJ/cm 2 and a modulation depth of 8.3%. In the passively Q-switched laser operation, the shortest pulse width of 500 ns was obtained with an average output power of 0.33 W at a pulse repetition rate of 117 kHz, corresponding to the maximum single pulse energy of 2.8 μJ and the peak power of 5.6 W.

Highlights

Passive Q-switched (PQS) solid state lasers with an appropriate saturable absorber (SA) is an efficient way to generate nanosecond pulses
The PQS average output power was investigated when the MoTe2 SA was inserted in the laser cavity and placed between the crystal and the output mirror (OM)
The wavelength of PQS laser was blue-shifted compared to the CW operation, which was the main character of the quasi-three level laser system

Summary

Introduction

Passive Q-switched (PQS) solid state lasers with an appropriate SA is an efficient way to generate nanosecond pulses. A series of 2D materials have been proved to be good candidates for SAs, such as graphene [1], [2], black phosphorus (BP) [3], [4], topological insulator (TI) [5] and the transitional metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). As synthetic 2D materials, the TMDs have the structure of a transition metal sandwiched between two chalcogen planes, such as WS2, MoS2, WSe2, and MoSe2, etc., exhibiting unique optical, mechanical and electronic characteristics, which make TMDs a great competitor to other 2D material SAs [6]–[10]. A new TMDs family member MoTe2 has drawn great interests, the fabrication method, electronic application and semimetallic properties are widely studied [11]–[13].

Methods

Results

Conclusion