High peak power subnanosecond pulse characteristics
with different wall structured CNTs in a doubly
QML Nd:Lu
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Y
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laser
Wenjing Tang, Jia Zhao, Kejian Yang, Shengzhi Zhao,* Guiqiu Li, Dechun Li, Tao Li, and Wenchao Qiao
School of Information Science and Engineering, Shandong University, 27 Shanda South Road, Jinan 250100, China
*Corresponding author: shengzhi_zhao@sdu.edu.cn
Received October 20, 2016; revised December 7, 2016; accepted December 8, 2016;
posted December 9, 2016 (Doc. ID 279038); published January 9, 2017
By simultaneously employing both an electro-optic modulator and carbon nanotube saturable absorber (CNT-SA)
in a dual-loss modulator, a subnanosecond single mode-locking pulse underneath a Q-switched envelope with
high peak power was generated from a doubly Q-switched and mode-locked (QML) Nd:Lu
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laser at
1.06 μm for the first time, to our knowledge. CNTs with different wall structures—single-walled CNTs (SWCNTs),
double-walled CNTs (DWCNTs), and multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs)—were used as SAs in the experiment to in-
vestigate the single mode-locking pulse characteristics. At pump power of 10.72 W, the maximum peak power of
1.312 MW was obtained with the DWCNT. © 2017 Chinese Laser Press
OCIS codes: (140.3518) Lasers, frequency modulated; (140.3538) Lasers, pulsed; (140.3580) Lasers,
solid-state; (140.4050) Mode-locked lasers.
https://doi.org/10.1364/PRJ.5.000046
1. INTRODUCTION
Stable pulsed lasers with high peak power and short pulse du-
ration have attracted much interest in the fields of laser mea-
surement, nonlinear optics, micromachining processes, and
so on [1–4]. To date, the most common approach to produce
ultrashort pulses is the passive continuous wave (CW) mode-
locking method based on saturable absorption [5]. However,
most of the reported CW mode-locking lasers have a high rep-
etition rate of up to megahertz or even gigahertz, which is ad-
justed only by changing the cavity length. The high repetition
rate could further lower the per-pulse energy and limit the ap-
plication fields of CW mode-locking lasers. In fact, pulses with
manageable low repetition rate and high pulse energy are
needed in some applications, such as fluorescence lifetime
measurement [1], chemical analysis based on laser ablation
[3], and laser micromachining [4]. Thus, in order to generate
short pulses with high peak power and optional low repetition
rate, the dual-loss-modulation Q-switched and mode-locked
(QML) technology is employed [6,7]. By simultaneously using
an active modulator and a saturable absorber (SA) in a laser
resonator, the dual-loss-modulated QML regime can appa-
rently compress the duration of the Q-switched envelope. The
repetition frequency of the mode-locking pulses underneath
the Q-switched envelope is related to the cavity round-trip
transit time. When the pulse width of the Q-switched envelope
is compressed to be shorter than the cavity round-trip trans-
mit time, only one subnanosecond mode-locked pulse in a
Q-switched envelope exists [8]. In this case, the repetition rate
of the single mode-locking pulse will equal that of the active
modulator. In such way, a stable subnanosecond single
mode-locking pulse with low repetition rate and high peak
power can be realized.
In comparison to the active modulator, the role of an SA for
pulse duration compression is more pronounced due to its fast
loss modulation inside the cavity. Therefore, it is important to
choose an excellent SA. In recent years, carbon nanotubes
(CNTs), as an excellent SA, have been successfully employed
in various lasers to generate ultrashort pulses [9–15]. In
comparison with the conventional semiconductor SA (e.g.,
SESAM), CNT-based SAs offer excellent performance with
the advantages of broad absorption spectra (0.8–2.1 μm),
ultrafast recovery time, chemical stability, high optical damage
threshold, and ease of manufacture [9,13,14]. In accordance
with the wall number, CNTs can be divided into single-
walled CNTs (SWCNTs), double-walled CNTs (DWCNTs),
and multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs) [11,12,16]. To date,
an MWCNT-based dual-loss-modulation subnanosecond
single mode-locking Nd:Lu
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∕KTP green laser has been
demonstrated [17]. However, subnanosecond single mode-
locked lasers at 1.06 μm have not been reported until now,
to our knowledge. Moreover, there is great interest in investi-
gating the subnanosecond single mode-locking pulse charac-
teristics versus CNTs with different wall structures.
In this paper, diode-pumped dual-loss-modulated QML
Nd:Lu
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lasers at 1.06 μm with an electro-optic (EO)
modulator and different CNT-SAs were presented. To get
a higher pulse energy and shorter pulse duration, a mixed
crystal Nd:Lu
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was used as the gain medium for
its large energy storage capacity, broad gain spectrum, and
small stimulated emission cross section [18]. An EO modula-
tor was chosen as the active modulator owing to its fast
switching and excellent hold-off ability, which was beneficial
to obtaining a shorter pulse duration of the Q-switched
envelope. By accurately designing the cavity parameters,
a subnanosecond pulse with high stability, high peak
46 Photon. Res. / Vol. 5, No. 1 / February 2017 Tang et al.
2327-9125/17/010046-06 © 2017 Chinese Laser Press