LD-end-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:YAG ceramic laser with single wall carbon nanotube saturable absorber

We report on a LD-end-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:YAG ceramic laser by using a novel single wall carbon nanotube saturable absorber (SWCNT-SA). The SWCNT wafer was fabricated by electric Arc discharge method on quartz substrate with absorption wavelength of 1064nm. We firstly investigated the continuous wave (CW) laser performance and scattering properties of Nd:YAG ceramic sample. For the case of passively Q-switched operation, a maximum output power of 376mW was obtained at an incident pump power of 8.68W at 808nm, corresponding to an optical–optical conversion efficiency of 4.3%. The repetition rate as the increase of pump power varied from 14 to 95kHz. The minimum pulse duration of 1.2μs and maximum pulse energy of 4.5μJ was generated at a repetition rate of 31.8kHz. ► A passively Q-switched Nd:YAG ceramic laser by use of a SWCNT as saturable absorber was demonstrated. ► Scattering and absorption properties of the Nd:YAG ceramic both at 1064nm and 808nm were given. ► Detailed preparation process of SWCNT-AB was introduced.