Tunable Q-switched fiber laser using zinc oxide nanoparticles as a saturable absorber
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2016
Abstract
Nanomaterials have ignited new interest due to their distinctive electronic, mechanical, and optical properties. Zinc oxide nanostructures are fabricated into thin film and then inserted between two fiber ferrules to act as a saturable absorber (SA). The modulation depth and insertion loss of the SA are 5% and 3.5 dB, respectively. When the ZnO-SA is incorporated into the laser cavity, a stable Q-switched pulse tunable from 1536 to 1586 nm (50 nm range) with pulse energy up to 46 nJ was observed. Our result suggests that ZnO is a promising broadband SA to generate passively Q-switched fiber lasers.
Keywords
Fiber lasers, Optical properties, Q switching, Zinc, Zinc oxide
Divisions
fac_eng,Science
Funders
Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia (MOHE); University of Malaya (UM): (LRGS(2015)NGOD/UM/KPT, GA010 2014 (ULUNG), RU007 2015)
Publication Title
Applied Optics
Volume
55
Issue
16
Publisher
Optical Society of America