Tunable Picosecond Laser Pulses via the Contrast of Two Reverse Saturable Absorption Phases in a Waveguide Platform

How to enhance the optical nonlinearity of saturable absorption materials is an important question to improve the functionality of various applications ranging from the high power laser to photonic computational devices. We demonstrate the saturable absorption (SA) of VO2 film attributed to the large difference of optical nonlinearities between the two states of the phase-transition materials (VO2). Such VO2 film demonstrated significantly improved performance with saturation intensity higher than other existing ultrathin saturable absorbers by 3 orders due to its unique nonlinear optical mechanisms in the ultrafast phase change process. Owing to this feature, a Q-switched pulsed laser was fabricated in a waveguide platform, which is the first time to achieve picosecond pulse duration and maintain high peak power. Furthermore, the emission of this VO2 waveguide laser can be flexibly switched between the continuous-wave (CW) and pulsed operation regimes by tuning the temperature of the VO2 film, which enables VO2-based miniature laser devices with unique and versatile functions.