title: Room-temperature subnanosecond waveguide lasers in Nd:YVO4Q-switched by phase-change VO2: A comparison with 2D materials.
abstract: We report on room-temperature subnanosecond waveguide laser operation at 1064 nm in a Nd:YVO4crystal waveguide through Q-switching of phase-change nanomaterial vanadium dioxide (VO2). The unique feature of VO2nanomaterial from the insulating to metallic phases offers low-saturation-intensity nonlinear absorptions of light for subnanosecond pulse generation. The low-loss waveguide is fabricated by using the femtosecond laser writing with depressed cladding geometry. Under optical pump at 808 nm, efficient pulsed laser has been achieved in the Nd:YVO4waveguide, reaching minimum pulse duration of 690 ps and maximum output average power of 66.7 mW. To compare the Q-switched laser performances by VO2saturable absorber with those based on two-dimensional materials, the 1064-nm laser pulses have been realized in the same waveguide platform with either graphene or transition metal dichalcogenide (in this work, WS2) coated mirror. The results on 2D material Q-switched waveguide lasers have shown that the shortest pulses are with 22-ns duration, whilst the maximum output average powers reach ~161.9 mW. This work shows the obvious difference on the lasing properties based on phase-change material and 2D materials, and suggests potential applications of VO2as low-cost saturable absorber for subnanosecond laser generation.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, and Key Laboratory of Particle Physics and Particle Irradiation (Ministry of Education), Shandong University, 250100 Jinan, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Weijie
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Nie
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, and Key Laboratory of Particle Physics and Particle Irradiation (Ministry of Education), Shandong University, 250100 Jinan, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Rang
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, and Key Laboratory of Particle Physics and Particle Irradiation (Ministry of Education), Shandong University, 250100 Jinan, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, and Key Laboratory of Particle Physics and Particle Irradiation (Ministry of Education), Shandong University, 250100 Jinan, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Yanxue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China.
authors.forename: Qingming
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Laser Microprocessing Group, Universidad de Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, Spain.
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Romero
authors.affiliation: Laser Microprocessing Group, Universidad de Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, Spain.
authors.forename: Javier R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Vázquez de Aldana
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, and Key Laboratory of Particle Physics and Particle Irradiation (Ministry of Education), Shandong University, 250100 Jinan, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Xiaotao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, and Key Laboratory of Particle Physics and Particle Irradiation (Ministry of Education), Shandong University, 250100 Jinan, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chen