An actively Q-switched single-longitudinal-mode fiber laser with an optically pumped saturable absorber

We have demonstrated an actively Q-switched single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) erbium-doped fiber (EDF) ring laser by using an EDF saturable absorber modulated under an external laser pulse injection. A laser output of 1531.9 nm wavelength from a distributed-feedback laser diode was amplified with an EDF amplifier and modulated with an external electro-optical modulator, and the modulated signals were used as control pulses to saturate the EDF saturable absorber for the actively Q-switched ring-type fiber laser operation. Actively Q-switched 1542 nm wavelength laser pulses of 4.5 nJ pulse energy and of 4.0μs pulse width were achieved at a repetition rate of 100 Hz. When the Q-switched laser pulse energy was reduced to about 0.54 nJ by decreasing the gain-pump power used for exciting the ring cavity and the control-pulse beam power used for bleaching out the saturable absorber, the SLM laser pulses were achieved. Further improvement of the Q-switched SLM laser pulse output can be achieved simply by using an external laser amplifier and by shortening the cavity length with short pigtailed-fiber laser components, and thus the SLM laser pulses can be useful for various applications. (paper)