Abstract

Among compact lasers based on waveguides as gain media, channel waveguides show virtues of delivering well-defined circular single-mode beam due to enhanced light confinement in small volumes. In recent years, Yb- doped single crystals or ceramics with large emission cross section, low quantum defects and low thermal loads have been actively applied for planar and channel waveguide lasers and subsequently different waveguide lasers Q-switched or mode-locked using graphene have been demonstrated [1-3]. Owing to its outstanding optical properties including ultrabroad absorption, large third-order nonlinearity and ultrafast nonlinear response, graphene turned out to be one of the most efficient novel saturable absorber (SA) materials [3]. In this work, we demonstrate a compact femtosecond-laser-inscribed Yb:YAG channel waveguide laser Q-switched by monolayer graphene near 1025 nm.

© 2015 IEEE