Black phosphorus-based saturable absorber for Q-switched Tm: YAG ceramic laser

We have experimentally demonstrated a passively Q-switched Tm-doped YAG ceramic laser with black phosphorus (BP) as saturable absorber (SA). According to the measurement, the BP saturable absorber mirror has a modulation depth of 5% and a saturation fluence of 20 mu J/cm(2). The generated Q-switched pulse has a maximum average power of 38.5 mW and pulse energy of 3.32 mu J, with the corresponding repetition rate of 11.6 KHz and pulse width of 3.12 mu s at 2 mu m wavelength. The results show that BP is a promising SA for mid-infrared-pulsed lasers. (C) 2016 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)