title: Semiconductor saturable absorber Q-switching of a holmium micro-laser.
abstract: We report on a Holmium micro-laser passively Q-switched by a semiconductor saturable absorber (SSA), for the first time to the best of our knowledge. It is based on a 1 at.% Ho:YAG ceramic with good energy storage capability and several commercial transmission-type SSAs with 0.24% modulation depth. Under in-band pumping by a Tm fiber laser at 1910 nm, the Ho micro-laser generated 450 mW at 2089 nm with 37% slope efficiency. Stable 89 ns, 3.2 μJ pulses are achieved at a repetition rate of 141 kHz. Further shortening of the laser pulses is feasible with the increase of the modulation depth of the SSA while power scaling may lead to Q-switching at MHz-range repetition rates.
authors.forename: Ruijun
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lan
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Mateos
authors.forename: Yicheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Josep Maria
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Serres
authors.forename: Pavel
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Loiko
authors.forename: Jiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yubai
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Griebner
authors.forename: Valentin
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Petrov