Passively Q-switched Tm/Mg:LiTaO3 laser using single-layer graphene as a saturable absorber

The performances of continuous-wave (CW) and Q-switched Tm/Mg:LiTaO3 lasers were demonstrated in this paper. A maximum CW output power of 1.1 W at 1927.4 nm was achieved under output coupler (OC) of TOC=1.0% with a slope efficiency of 10.1%. Employing a single-layer graphene (SLG) as saturable absorber, pulses as short as 845 ns were obtained at a central wavelength of 1907.5 nm under a repetition frequency of 46.6 kHz, resulting in a single pulse energy of 20.0 μJ and peak power of 23.6 W.