Q-switched ytterbium-doped fiber laser with zinc oxide based saturable absorber
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2016
Abstract
A Q-switched ytterbium doped fiber laser (YDFL) with a ZnO saturable absorber (SA) is used to demonstrate the generation of pulses in the 1 micron region. The system has a Q-switching threshold of approximately 115.2 mW, and can generate pulses with a 3.0 µs full-width at half maximum as well as a peak-to-pedestal ratio of 53.0 dB. No spectral modulations are observed, indicating a highly stable system. The pulse output of the proposed system has repetition rates and pulse widths of approximately 50 kHz and 1.6 µs, as well as an average output power of 0.14 mW and a pulse energy of 2.8 nJ at its highest pump power of 196 mW. This is the first time, to the authors' knowledge, that a ZnO based SA has been used to generate pulses in the 1 micron region with a YDFL.
Keywords
Q-switched, Saturable absorber, Ytterbium-doped fiber laser, Zinc oxide
Divisions
fac_eng,Science
Funders
Universiti Malaya and Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia by the research grants LRGS (2015) NGOD / UM / KPT, GA010-2014 (ULUNG) and RU010/2016
Publication Title
Laser Physics
Volume
26
Issue
11
Publisher
IOP Publishing