Few-layered MoS as a saturable absorber for a passively Q-switched Er:YAG laser at 1.6 μm.

The passively Q-switched Er:YAG laser at 1.6 μm was achieved with a YAG-based MoS saturable absorber (SA) for the first time. The saturable absorption properties of the MoS SA near 1.6 μm were investigated. Under an absorbed pump power of 8.09 W, an average output power of 1.08 W with a pulse duration of 1.138 μs and a repetition rate of 46.6 kHz was obtained, corresponding to an optical conversion efficiency of 40.67%. The pulse energy and peak power were calculated to be 23.08 μJ and 20.28 W, respectively.