Actively Q-switched all-fiber lasers

Abstract

Q-switching of fiber lasers using bulk elements has important drawbacks as reduced mechanical stability and high insertion losses. The development of efficient all-fiber modulation techniques is the key to obtain robust, compact and efficient Q-switched all-fiber lasers. Certainly, the development of fiber Bragg gratings (FBG) has been crucial to make progress on fiber lasers. FBGs permit a simple way to assemble all-fiber laser cavities and can be written in the active fiber itself. The Q-factor of this type of cavities is determined by the reflectivity of the FBGs and the losses of the fiber. Here, we focus on the use of magnetostrictive materials and the acousto-optic interaction to develop efficient Q-factor modulators. Most of these modulators include an FBG and take advantage of the specific interaction of the magnetostrictive materials or the acoustic wave with the FBG itself. Fiber optic technologies permit the development of a rather unique type of fiber lasers, i.e., actively Q-switched distributed feedback (DFB) fiber lasers. In this case, both the use of magnetostrictive materials and the acousto-optic interaction permit the generation of dynamic defects in an FBG that has been previously written in a highly Er-doped fiber.