A passively<i>Q</i>-switched Er:LuYAG laser with a graphene saturable absorber

Abstract

A stable passively Q-switched Er:LuYAG laser resonantly pumped by an Er, Yb co-doped fiber laser was demonstrated using a graphene-based saturable absorber. At an incident pump power of 5.5 W, a maximum average output power of 460 mW at a central wavelength of 1648 nm was obtained with a shortest pulse duration of 2.05 mu s, a repetition rate of 78.9 kHz and a pulse energy of 5.84 mu J.