TiO-Based Q-Switched Ytterbium-Doped Fiber Laser

摘要

Pulsed lasers operating at the 1.0 micron region have multiple key applications in various sectors such as defense, manufacturing, medicine and sensing. The importance of systems operating at the 1.0 micron region is that they are eye-safe, allowing them to be used in real world applications where laser safety may not always be given top priority. Furthermore, lasers operating at this region have numerous sensing applications, particular for medical, biological and chemical sensing. While ytterbium fiber lasers are common and have been thoroughly researched, Q-switched ytterbium fiber lasers have been limited to mostly bulky and sensitive units, as they require the use of modulators or SESAMs. However, the advent of graphene and other thin film saturable absorbers now provides the opportunity to realize compact and rugged, yet highly cost effective ytterbium fiber lasers which can be used in the field.A -switched ytterbium-doped fiber laser (YDFL) using Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO) as a saturable absorber (SA) is proposed and demonstrated. -switched pulses with a center wavelength of 1035.5 nm are obtained at a threshold pump power of 137.6 mW. The generated pulses have a maximum repetition rate and minimum pulse width of 86.7 kHz and , respectively, as well as a corresponding pulse energy and average output power of 1.7 nJ and 0.15 mW, respectively. The proposed YDFL demonstrates the viability of TiO nanoparticles as an SA for producing -switching pulses in the region.