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Nickel–cobalt layered double hydroxide saturable absorber for a mid-infrared 2 µm Tm:YAG ceramic mode-locked laser

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Abstract

The nickel–cobalt (NiCo) layered double hydroxide (LDH) prepared by the hydrothermal method is fabricated into a saturable absorber mirror using the ultrasonic liquid phase-assisted exfoliation method and results in achieving a 2 μm passively mode-locked laser operation. Using an X-type resonator based on Tm:YAG ceramic, a Q-switched mode-locked laser output with a maximum output power of 278 mW was achieved, with a repetition frequency of 146 MHz and a pulse width of 221 ps. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the application of NiCo-LDH saturable absorber as an optical modulator in a mid-infrared mode-locked laser.

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Data underlying the results presented in this paper are not publicly available at this time but may be obtained from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Contributions

MW and ZY executed the experiment and wrote the main manuscript text. YX and FY prepared figures 4-6. JL and XH gave scientific discussion and suggestions. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Zhenzhen Yu.

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Wang, M., Xu, Y., Yu, Z. et al. Nickel–cobalt layered double hydroxide saturable absorber for a mid-infrared 2 µm Tm:YAG ceramic mode-locked laser. Appl. Phys. B 129, 104 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-023-08051-6

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