Watt-level continuous-wave mode-locked Nd:YVO4 laser with ReSe2 saturable absorber

Abstract

We report a ReSe2 passively mode-locked composite YVO4/Nd:YVO4 laser at 1.06 μm, which can stably generate pure continuous-wave mode-locking (CWML) operation at watt-level output. ReSe2, as a new type of 2-D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), has the features of weak-layered dependence, broadband saturable absorption, low modulation depth and saturation intensity, which is beneficial to initiate robust CWML mechanism via nonlinear saturable absorption. By employing few-layered ReSe2 as saturable absorber, the nanosecond mode-locked pulses at fundamental repetition rate of 90.37 MHz was obtained experimentally in a composite YVO4/Nd:YVO4 laser. The maximum output power in pure CWML operation was as high as 1.1 W. The high-power CWML laser source shows potential applications in time-resolved spectroscopy, telecommunication and detection.