title: Active Q-switching in an erbium-doped fiber laser using an ultrafast silicon-based variable optical attenuator.
abstract: Presented herein is the use of an ultrafast Si-based variable optical attenuator (VOA) as a Q-switch for rare earth-doped fiber lasers. The ultrafast VOA is based on a forward-biased p-i-n diode integrated with a ridge waveguide, which was originally designed and optimized for WDM channel power equalization in optical communication systems. By incorporating a Si-based VOA with a transient time of ~410 ns into an erbium-doped fiber-based Fabry-Perot cavity it has been shown that stable Q-switched pulses possessing a temporal width of less than ~86 ns can be readily obtained at a repetition rate of up to ~1 MHz. The laser's peak power of ~38 W is shown to be obtainable at 20 kHz with a slope efficiency of ~21%.
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Seoul, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: You Min
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Junsu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Young Min
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Jhon
authors.forename: Ju Han
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000042:Absorption; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005336:Fiber Optic Technology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D053844:Lasers, Solid-State; D008027:Light; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*