Few-layer black phosphorus based saturable absorber mirror for pulsed solid-state lasers.

We experimentally demonstrated that few-layer black phosphorus (BP) could be used as an optical modulator for solid-state lasers to generate short laser pulses. The BP flakes were fabricated by the liquid phase exfoliation method and drop-casted on a high-reflection mirror to form a BP-based saturable absorber mirror (BP-SAM). Stable Q-switched pulses with a pulse width of 620 ns at the wavelength of 1046 nm were obtained in a Yb:CaYAlO(4) (Yb:CYA) laser with the BP-SAM. The generated pulse train has a repetition rate of 113.6 kHz and an average output power of 37 mW. Our results show that the BP-SAMs could have excellent prospective for ultrafast photonics applications.