Evaluation of a high power Q-switched Tm<sup>3+</sup>-doped silica fiber laser operating near 2&#956;m

Ashraf F. El-Sherif; Terence A. King

doi:10.1117/12.639870

15 March 2006 Evaluation of a high power Q-switched Tm³⁺-doped silica fiber laser operating near 2μm

Ashraf F. El-Sherif, Terence A. King

Proceedings Volume 6102, Fiber Lasers III: Technology, Systems, and Applications; 61020R (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.639870
Event: Lasers and Applications in Science and Engineering, 2006, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

The operation and performance characteristics of three different modulation techniques for the Q-switching of Tm3+ doped silica fibre lasers operating near 2 um are described. Various Q-switched regimes are observed for a range of modulation frequencies and fibre lengths when the fibre is end-pumped with a high power Nd: YAG laser operating at 1.319 um in a linear bidirectional cavity. A larger multimode fibre core of 17 um diameter is used to increase the laser gain volume and achieve higher pulse energy. Experimentally this laser produced pulses with a peak power of 18.5 W, at higher repetition rate of approximately 20 kHz, a single Q-switched pulse of duration 300 ns at full width at half-maximum (FWHM), and 5.5 uJ are observed using an optical (mechanical) chopper. A peak power of ~ 3.3 kW and pulse duration of 320 ns (FWHM) at low repetition rate of 50-70 Hz and highest pulse energy up to 2.3 mJ by using an electro-optic modulator (EOM) is obtained. This peak power is enhanced to be 4.1 kW and the shortest pulse duration at FWHM of 150 ns at low repetition rates of 100-500 Hz when using an acousto-optic modulator (AOM). The results presented show that Q-switching is currently limited by the performance of the intracavity modulator. In this paper, an evaluation is presented of the high performance of active Q-switched Tm³⁺ doped fibre lasers using various techniques, some reasons for the difference in performance are discussed and some potential routes to further improvements are described.

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Ashraf F. El-Sherif and Terence A. King "Evaluation of a high power Q-switched Tm³⁺-doped silica fiber laser operating near 2μm", Proc. SPIE 6102, Fiber Lasers III: Technology, Systems, and Applications, 61020R (15 March 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.639870

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KEYWORDS

Bragg cells

Fiber lasers

Thulium

Q switched lasers

Q switches

Q switching

Modulation

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