Mode locking of ceramic Nd:yttrium aluminum garnet with graphene as a saturable absorber

The mode-locking of a ceramic Nd:yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) solid-state laser (SSL) with solution processed graphene as saturable absorber (SA) was demonstrated. Transform-limited pulses with duration of 4 ps centered at 1064 nm were generated for a nondispersion compensated Nd:YAG SSL. Z-scan studies revealed that the graphene SA has a saturation intensity of 0.87 M W cm−2 and a normalized modulation depth of 17.4%. Our results illustrate the potential of using graphene as a mode locker for SSLs.