Two-dimensional (2D) materials as saturable absorbers (SAs) have attracted intense interest for applications in pulsed laser generation because of their distinguishing optical properties. However, the existing methods of preparing SAs were insufficient. Here, we fabricated graphene oxide (GO) SAs by Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) methods for passively Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. The GO sheets were deposited on a quartz plate using the LB method. Two different LB-GO SAs grown under the surface pressure of 22 and 38 mN/m were obtained. Compared with the drop coating method, LB-GO SA exhibited more excellent uniformity, larger nonlinear performance and higher optical transparency. By inserting LB-GO SA into the Nd:YAG laser linear cavity, the short pulse duration of 156 ns and the average output power of 1.313 W were obtained. The slope efficiency was as high as 43.7%, due to low loss of the LB-GO SA. Our results illustrated a new way for preparing the SA using the LB technique.
Keywords: Langmuir-Blodgett films; graphene oxide; nonlinear optical materials; saturable absorbers.