Watt-level passively Q-switched Yb:LuPO4 miniature crystal laser with few-layer MoS2 saturable absorber

We demonstrate a Yb:LuPO4 miniature crystal laser that is formed with a 5 mm long plane-parallel resonator, and is passively Q-switched by a few-layer MoS2 saturable absorber. With 6.53 W of pump power absorbed, an average output power of 2.06 W at 1020.8 nm is generated at a pulse repetition rate of 429 kHz with a slope efficiency of 50%; the resulting pulse energy, duration, and peak power are respectively 4.8 mu J, 83 ns, and 57.8 W. While operating at 1010.5 nm, the laser is capable of producing an average output power of 1.53 W at a repetition rate of 870 kHz, with pulse duration being shortened to 61 ns. These results represent a significant progress in the development of Yb- or Nd-ion lasers passively Q-switched by two-dimensional MoS2. (C) 2018 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement