title: All-optical, actively Q-switched fiber laser.
abstract: All-fiber lasers offer increased robustness and simplicity over other fiber laser systems. Current active Q-switching techniques for all-fiber lasers rely on electro-mechanical transducers to strain-tune an intra-cavity fiber-Bragg grating, which adds complexity and can lead to vibrational sensitivity. An all-optical technique for achieving active Q-switched operation is a more elegant approach and would maintain the inherent robustness and simplicity of an all-fiber laser system. In this work, we studied the optical tuning of a fiber-Bragg grating by resonant optical pumping and optimized it for application to active systems. We incorporated an optically-tunable fiber-Bragg grating into a fiber laser and demonstrated active Q-switching at 35 kHz with this all-optical, all-fiber laser system. We highlight the potential to operate at >300 kHz with the current embodiment. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of an optically-driven active Q-switch in a fiber laser. Further potential to operate at MHz frequencies is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS), MQ Photonics Research Centre, Department of Physics and Engineering, Macquarie University, New South Wales 2109, Australia. robert.williams@mq.edu.au
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Nemanja
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jovanovic
authors.forename: Graham D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Marshall
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Withford