WSe₂ saturable absorber for a pulsed bulk laser at 1645 nm

Abstract

We report a diode in-band pumped 1.6 µm passively Q-switched Er:YAG laser, using a tungsten diselenide (WSe 2 ) saturable absorber prepared with the liquid phase exfoliation method. The stable Q-switched pulses were obtained with a shortest pulse width of 650 ns and a highest single pulse energy of 11.2 µJ at a repetition rate of 71.4 kHz. Our results indicate the great potentials of WSe 2 for bulk laser modulation at ~1.6 µm and can find broad application in optoelectronics.