▎ 摘　　要

For the first time, graphene saturable absorber (SA) is used as the Q-switcher for a 946 nm Nd:YAG laser. Using a 5-7 layer graphene SA with initial transmission of 78% and an output coupler with transmission of 5%, efficient Q-switching operation is realized. When the absorbed pump power is raised to 9.5 W, a maximum output power of 0.9 W is obtained, corresponding to an optical conversion efficiency of 9.5%. The pulse repetition frequency and the pulse width are 225 kHz, 162 ns, respectively, resulting a pulse energy of 4 mu J and a peak power of 24.7 W. With a BiB3O6 (BIBO) crystal as the frequency doubler, 473 nm blue laser is generated. The present research manifests graphene has great potential for short wavelength laser modulation. (C) 2015 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.