β-Ga2O3 Used as a Saturable Sbsorber to Realize Passively Q-Switched Laser Output

• Published in: Crystals (Basel) Vol. 11; no. 12; p. 1501
• Main Authors: Li, Baizhong, Chen, Qiudi, Zhang, Peixiong, Tian, Ruifeng, Zhang, Lu, Sai, Qinglin, Wang, Bin, Pan, Mingyan, Liu, Youchen, Xia, Changtai, Chen, Zhenqiang, Qi, Hongji
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.12.2021
• Subjects: Bridgman method; Crystal growth; Gallium oxides; Graphene; Laser outputs; Lasers; Neodymium lasers; optical floating zone; Optical properties; Photonic band gaps; Pulse duration; Pulsed lasers; Q switched lasers; Q-switch; Raw materials; saturable absorber; Single crystals; Solid state lasers; Spectrum analysis; Thermal conductivity; β-Ga2O3 crystal
• ISSN: 2073-4352; 2073-4352
• DOI: 10.3390/cryst11121501

β-Ga2O3 crystals have attracted great attention in the fields of photonics and photoelectronics because of their ultrawide band gap and high thermal conductivity. Here, a pure β-Ga2O3 crystal was successfully grown by the optical floating zone (OFZ) method, and was used as a saturable absorber to realize a passively Q-switched all-solid-state 1 μm laser for the first time. By placing the as-grown β-Ga2O3 crystal into the resonator of the Nd:GYAP solid-state laser, Q-switched pulses at the center wavelength of 1080.4 nm are generated under a output coupling of 10%. The maximum output power is 191.5 mW, while the shortest pulse width is 606.54 ns, and the maximum repetition frequency is 344.06 kHz. The maximum pulse energy and peak power are 0.567 μJ and 0.93 W, respectively. Our experimental results show that the β-Ga2O3 crystal has great potential in the development of an all-solid-state 1 μm pulsed laser.