Q-switched tunable fiber laser utilizing silver nanoparticles deposited onto PVA film as saturable absorber

• Main Authors: Rizman, Z. I., Rusdi, M. F. M., Yasin, M., Yupapin, P., Harun, Sulaiman Wadi
• Format: Article
• Published: Indian Assoc Cultivation Science 2021
• Subjects: QC Physics
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/28111/

We demonstrate a broadband-tunable Q-switched fiber laser by exploiting a silver nanoparticles (SNP) saturable absorber (SA) as a Q-switcher. The SA device was prepared by depositing SNP onto a polyvinyl alcohol thin film utilizing an electron beam deposition technique. The SA was then incorporated into an erbium-doped fiber laser cavity to generate Q-switched pulses. By adjusting a tunable filter inside the laser cavity, the generated Q-switching pulses train operation could be tuned from 1535 to 1565 nm with the highest slope efficiency of 25.3% obtained at 1560 nm. At this operating wavelength, the laser repetition rate was raised from 15.1 to 28.4 kHz, whereas the pulse width shrunk from 19.45 to 11.85 mu s with an increasing laser diode power from 14.9 to 37.8 mW. The pulse energy of 27.5 nJ was obtained at 37.8 mW pump power.