Passively Q-Switched Yb:Lu0.74Y0.23La0.01VO4 Laser Based on MoTe2 Saturable Absorber

A passively-Q-switched Yb:Lu
_1-x-y
Y
_x
La
_y
VO
₄
laser based on a two-dimension (2D) molybdenum ditelluride (MoTe
₂
) saturable absorber (SA) is reported for the first time to the best of our knowledge. High quality few layered 2D MoTe
₂
nanosheets were fabricated by liquid phase exfoliation (LPE) method and used as the SA, whose saturable absorption properties around 1.0 μm were characterized with a saturation fluence of 3.02 μJ/cm
²
and a modulation depth of 8.3%. In the passively Q-switched laser operation, the shortest pulse width of 500 ns was obtained with an average output power of 0.33 W at a pulse repetition rate of 117 kHz, corresponding to the maximum single pulse energy of 2.8 μJ and the peak power of 5.6 W.