TY - JOUR
T1 - A tale of two tantalum borides as potential saturable absorbers for q-switched fiber lasers
AU - Hattori, Haroldo T.
AU - As'Ham, Khalil
AU - Haque, Ahasanul
AU - Li, Ziyuan
AU - Olbricht, Benjamin
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2009-2012 IEEE.
PY - 2019/6
Y1 - 2019/6
N2 - In this paper, we analyze the performance of two tantalum-based boride (TaB and TaB-{2}) microparticles as potential saturable absorbers for high-power fiber lasers. Both materials are ultrahigh temperature ceramics with melting points above 3000 °C, but with different crystalline structures: TaB has an orthorhombic structure (nearly isotropic), whereas TaB-{2} has a hexagonal structure (uniaxial, anisotropic). Despite their different crystalline structures, the microparticles have a similar low fluence attenuation (between 2.3 and 2.60 dB/μm) and modulation depths (around 2.0 dB/μm), but remarkable different saturation fluences: TaB has a saturation fluence of 160 μJ/cm2, whereas TaB-{2} has a saturation fluence of 110 μJ/cm2. The measured damage thresholds are 112 and 106 mJ/cm2/pulse for TaB and TaB-{2}, respectively. When incorporated to a fiber laser, the materials produce pulses with durations of 345 ns, lower than those reported by our group in previous papers. The results show that the materials can find potential applications in high-power Q-switched lasers.
AB - In this paper, we analyze the performance of two tantalum-based boride (TaB and TaB-{2}) microparticles as potential saturable absorbers for high-power fiber lasers. Both materials are ultrahigh temperature ceramics with melting points above 3000 °C, but with different crystalline structures: TaB has an orthorhombic structure (nearly isotropic), whereas TaB-{2} has a hexagonal structure (uniaxial, anisotropic). Despite their different crystalline structures, the microparticles have a similar low fluence attenuation (between 2.3 and 2.60 dB/μm) and modulation depths (around 2.0 dB/μm), but remarkable different saturation fluences: TaB has a saturation fluence of 160 μJ/cm2, whereas TaB-{2} has a saturation fluence of 110 μJ/cm2. The measured damage thresholds are 112 and 106 mJ/cm2/pulse for TaB and TaB-{2}, respectively. When incorporated to a fiber laser, the materials produce pulses with durations of 345 ns, lower than those reported by our group in previous papers. The results show that the materials can find potential applications in high-power Q-switched lasers.
KW - Optical fiber lasers
KW - Q-switched lasers
KW - optical materials
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85065989204&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/JPHOT.2019.2906919
DO - 10.1109/JPHOT.2019.2906919
M3 - Article
SN - 1943-0655
VL - 11
JO - IEEE Photonics Journal
JF - IEEE Photonics Journal
IS - 3
M1 - 8673547
ER -