An active and passive dual-loss Q-switched intracavity OPO based on few-layer WS2 saturable absorber

Abstract A 2.5 nm-thickness tungsten disulfide (WS2) saturable absorber (SA) was successfully fabricated by the electron beam evaporation (EBE) combined with post vulcanization. By applying the prepared WS2 SA to an acousto-optic (AO) Q-switched fundamental laser, a dual-loss-modulated Q-switched intracavity optical parametric oscillator (IOPO) has been experimentally realized. Because of the participation of WS2 SA, the problem of output decline was alleviated when the pump power was between 8.6 W and 10.8 W. The pulse width could be maximally compressed by 73% in WS2 SA based active-passive Q-switched IOPO with 10 kHz pulse-repetition rate, and the shortest pulse width in experiment was 1.098 ns. Benefiting from the pulse compression, the maximum pulse peak power in dual-loss-modulated Q-switched IOPO was 427% higher than that in AO active Q-switched IOPO. The application of WS2 SA also contributed to the stability of signal pulse train whose root mean square error (RMS) was efficiently lowered from 0.01776 to 0.00954. The nonlinear conversion efficiency was improved by approximate 38.2% in the dual-loss-modulated Q-switched IOPO.