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Lithium Niobate Crystal with Embedded Au Nanoparticles: A New Saturable Absorber for Efficient Mode‐Locking of Ultrafast Laser Pulses at 1 µm
Author(s) -
Pang Chi,
Li Rang,
Li Ziqi,
Dong Ningning,
Cheng Chen,
Nie Weijie,
Böttger Roman,
Zhou Shengqiang,
Wang Jun,
Chen Feng
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
advanced optical materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.89
H-Index - 91
ISSN - 2195-1071
DOI - 10.1002/adom.201800357
Subject(s) - materials science , saturable absorption , ultrashort pulse , laser , optoelectronics , nanoparticle , lithium niobate , optics , photonics , wavelength , fiber laser , nanotechnology , physics
Abstract Plasmonic Au nanoparticles embedded in LiNbO 3 crystals as efficient saturable absorbers to realize 74.1 ps mode‐locked laser pulse generation at 1 µm are reported. The system is fabricated by Au ion implantation and subsequent annealing, a well‐developed chip technology. The strong optical absorption band peaking at 640 nm is observed due to the localized surface plasmon resonance. Z‐scan investigation shows that the LiNbO 3 crystals with embedded Au nanoparticles possess ultrafast saturable absorption properties at near‐infrared 1 µm wavelength. With this feature the Au nanoparticles embedded LiNbO 3 wafer is applied as saturable absorber into a laser‐written Nd:YVO 4 waveguide platform. Stable laser pulses at 1064 nm based on an efficient passive Q‐switched mode‐locking process, reaching a fundamental repetition rate of 6.4 GHz and a pulse duration of 74.1 ps, are obtained. Since LiNbO 3 has broadband applications in various optical systems, this work opens the way to develop intriguing devices in LiNbO 3 ‐based photonic circuits by using embedded metallic nanoparticles.