Intracavity KTP OPO pumped by a doubly Q-switched laser with AOM and a monolayer graphene saturable abosorber

•An doubly Q-switched IOPO laser with AOM and monolayer graphene has been achieved.•The shortest pulse duration of 1.24 ns was obtained.•Doubly Q-switched IOPO laser has superior laser performance compared with singly.

An intracavity KTiOPO4 (KTP) optical parametric oscillator (IOPO) pumped by a doubly Q-switched YVO4/Nd:YVO4 laser with an acousto-optic modulator (AOM) and a monolayer graphene saturable absorber has been realized for the first time. The average output power, the pulse duration, single pulse energy and the peak power of signal light versus incident pump power have been measured. At an incident pump power of 11.7 W and an AOM repetition rate of 10 kHz, the shortest pulse duration of 1.24 ns was obtained, corresponding to a single pulse energy of 9.5 μJ and a peak power of 7.9 kW. In comparison, the doubly IOPO (DIOPO) pumped by doubly Q-switched laser with AOM and graphene saturable absorber can generate pulses with narrower pulse width and higher peak power than the singly IOPO (SIOPO) pumped only by AOM Q-switched laser.