Nanosecond pulse generation in a passively Q-switched Nd:GGG laser at 1331 nm by CVD graphene saturable absorber

We report on a nanosecond pulse generation in a diode end-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:GGG laser at the low-gain transition line of 1331 nm. A three-layer CVD graphene thin film was transferred from Cu foil to a BK7 glass substrate for the use of saturable absorber. A stable Q-switching laser operation was obtained with maximum average output power of 0.69 W and slope efficiency of about 11.0% with respect to the absorbed pump power. The shortest pulse duration and the maximum repetition rate of the pulse trains were registered to be 556 ns and 166.7 kHz with corresponding maximum pulse energy 4.14 μJ and pulse peak power 7.45 W. This is the first demonstration of CVD-graphene-based Q-switched laser operation at 1.3 μm, to the best of our knowledge.