Bismuth-doped fiber as Q-switcher in hafnium bismuth erbium co-doped fiber laser

• Main Authors: Ahmad, Aminah, Harun, Sulaiman Wadi, Paul, Mukul Chandran, Rusdi, M. F. M., Das, Shyamal, Dhar, Anirban, Noordin, Kamarul Ariffin
• Format: Article
• Published: John Wiley & Sons 2020
• Subjects: TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/36677/

We demonstrate a compact, all-fiber Q-switched hafnium bismuth erbium co-doped fiber laser based on bismuth-doped fiber (BDF) as the saturable absorber (SA). The laser cavity was constructed using a homemade hafnium bismuth erbium co-doped fiber as gain medium. It was found that stable Q-switched pulses operating at 1531.74 nm can be readily generated when the 980 nm pump power is raised above the threshold of 96 mW. By increasing the pump power to the maximum power of 198 mW, the repetition rate was tunable from 27.2 to 59.1 kHz while the pulse width reduces from 36.3 to 6.8 mu s. At the maximum pump power, the Q-switched laser produced a pulse energy of 10.1 nJ. The finding provides evidence of the possibility of BDF as an effective SA for Q-switched laser operating in 1.5 mu m region.