Graphene saturable absorber (SA) is used as the passive Q-switcher of a 0.9-\mu m solid-state laser. When the laser medium is a Nd:La0.11Y0.89VO4 crystal, the initial transmittance of the graphene SA is 78%; at an absorbed pump power of 7.62 W, the maximum average output power, largest pulse energy, and minimum pulse width are 0.62 W, 2.58 μJ, and 84 ns, respectively. This study shows that graphene is a promising and cost-saving SA for 0.9-\mu m pulse generation.

石墨烯具有饱和恢复时间极短、导热性好、吸收带宽、损耗低、成本低廉且容易制备等优点，被认为是光电子应用中理想的半导体可饱和吸收体材料，近几年受到广泛的关注。介绍了本课题组最近在石墨烯锁模超快全固体激光器研究中取得的一些进展。在用液相剥离方法成功制备出尺寸大于20 μm的石墨烯薄片的基础上，将其应用于全固态NdGdVO4激光器，实现了脉宽16 ps、平均功率360 mW的锁模激光输出，单脉冲能量为8.4 nJ；继而在宽带增益介质YbKGW晶体中又实现了脉宽为489 fs的超快激光，平均功率564 mW。