title: Gain-switched all-fiber laser with narrow bandwidth.
abstract: Gain-switching of a CW fiber laser is a simple and cost-effective approach to generate pulses using an all-fiber system. We report on the construction of a narrow bandwidth (below 0.1 nm) gain-switched fiber laser and optimize the pulse energy and pulse duration under this constraint. The extracted pulse energy is 20 μJ in a duration of 135 ns at 7 kHz. The bandwidth increases for a higher pump pulse energy and repetition rate, and this sets the limit of the output pulse energy. A single power amplifier is added to raise the peak power to the kW-level and the pulse energy to 230 μJ while keeping the bandwidth below 0.1 nm. This allows frequency doubling in a periodically poled lithium tantalate crystal with a reasonable conversion efficiency.
authors.affiliation: DTU Fotonik, Department of Photonics Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs Lyngby, Denmark. crla@fotonik.dtu.dk
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Larsen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Giesberts
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nyga
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Fitzau
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jungbluth
authors.forename: H D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Hoffmann
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bang
mesh_terms: D000669:Amplifiers, Electronic; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005336:Fiber Optic Technology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D007834:Lasers