In this paper, the fabrication process and characterization of Bi2Te3 topological insulators (TIs) synthesized by the spin-coating-coreduction approach (SCCA) is reported. With this approach, high-uniformity nano-crystalline TI saturable absorbers (TISAs) with large-area uniformity and controllable thickness are prepared. By employing these prepared TIs with different thicknesses as SAs in 2-μm solid-state Q-switched lasers, thickness-dependent output powers and pulse durations of the laser pulses are obtained, and the result also exhibits stability and reliability. The shortest pulse duration is as short as 233 ns, and the corresponding clock amplitude jitter is around 2.1%, which is the shortest pulse duration in TISA-based Q-switched 2-μm lasers to the best of our knowledge. Moreover, in comparison with the TISA synthesized by the ultrasound-assisted liquid phase exfoliation (UALPE) method, the experimental results show that lasers with SCCA synthesized TISAs have higher output powers, shorter pulse durations, and higher pulse peak powers. Our work suggests that the SCCA synthesized TISAs could be used as potential SAs in pulsed lasers.

In this paper, we reported a multiwavelength passively Q-switched Yb3+:GdAl3(BO3)4 solid-state laser with topological insulator Bi2Te3 as a saturable absorber (SA) for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. Bi2Te3 nanosheets were prepared by the facile solvothermal method. The influence of three Bi2Te3 densities on the laser operation was compared. The maximum average output power was up to 57 mW with a pulse energy of 511.7 nJ. The shortest pulsewidth was measured to be 370 ns with 110 kHz pulse repetition rate and 40 mW average power. The laser operated at three wavelengths simultaneously at 1043.7, 1045.3, and 1046.2 nm, of which the frequency differences were within the terahertz wave band. Our work suggests that solvothermal synthesized Bi2Te3 is a promising SA for simultaneously multiwavelength laser operation.