Passively Q-switched 3 μm erbium-doped solid state lasers using gold nanorods as broadband saturable absorber

The gold nanorods with an average aspect ratio of 30 were grown by the three-step seed-mediated wet chemistry growth method, resulting in a broadband spectral response in 3 μm region. Passive Q-switching operation of LD pumped 2.8 μm Er:YSGG and 2.9 μm Er:YAP laser was successfully realized by using the gold nanorods as saturable absorber. With regard to the Er:YSGG laser, the passively Q-switched pulses at 2796 nm with a maximum average output power of 234 mW, a minimum pulse width of 270.8 ns and a pulse repetition rate of 280.4 kHz were achieved. For the combination of Er:YAP and gold nanorods saturable absorber, a maximum average output power of 415 mW was obtained at 2919 nm. The minimum pulse width and pulse repetition rate were 313.2 ns and 196.8 kHz, respectively. The experimental results show that large-aspect-ratio gold nanorods can be used as a promising broadband saturable absorber to generate 3 μm short pulses.