Tunable Nd, La: SrF₂ laser and passively Q-switched operation based on gold nanobipyramids saturable absorber

A novel Nd, La:SrF₂ disordered crystal is prepared, and its continuous-wave wavelength tuning operation is performed for the first time. Employing a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) based gold nanobipyramids (G-NBPs) saturable absorber, we obtain a compact diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd, La:SrF₂ laser. The stable Q-switched pulse operates with the shortest pulse duration of 1.15 μs and the maximum repetition rate of 41 kHz. The corresponding single pulse energy is 2.24 μJ. The results indicate that G-NBPs could be a promising saturable absorber applied to the diode-pumped solid state lasers (DPSSLs).