Gold Nanocages as Saturable Absorbers for Passively Q-Switched Nd:YVO<sub>4</sub> Lasers with Optimized Performance
Bin Zhang,
Xiaohan Chen,
Haoyuan Li,
Liwei Xu,
Binghai Liu,
Ping Li
Affiliations
Bin Zhang
Center for Optics Research and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Laser & Infrared System, Ministry of Education, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China
Xiaohan Chen
School of Information Science and Engineering, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Laser Technology and Application, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China
Haoyuan Li
School of Physics and Technology, University of Jinan, Jinan 250022, China
Liwei Xu
Center for Optics Research and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Laser & Infrared System, Ministry of Education, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China
Binghai Liu
School of Information Science and Engineering, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Laser Technology and Application, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China
Ping Li
Center for Optics Research and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Laser & Infrared System, Ministry of Education, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China
Based on a gold nanocage saturable absorber (GNC-SA) with the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) absorption peak located at 1.06 μm, passively Q-switched Nd:YVO4 lasers with a center wavelength of 1064.1 nm were demonstrated. Q-switched pulses with the shortest pulse duration of 143 ns and a pulse repetition rate of 467 kHz were achieved at transmittance T = 4% under a pump power of 5.98 W. Under a pump power of 3.95 W, the maximum average output power of 372 mW was obtained at a laser with transmittance of 10.8%, corresponding to an optical conversion efficiency of 9.4% and a slope efficiency of 14.1%. Our results reveal that for passively Q-switched lasers at a given wavelength, we are able to synthesize the most suitable GNC-SA to obtain the best output characteristics of lasers.
