Saturable absorber Q- and gain-switched all-Yb3+ all-fiber laser at 976 and 1064 nm

We demonstrate a novel passively pulsed all-Yb3+ all-fiber laser pumped by a continuous-wave 915-nm pump laser diode. The laser was saturable absorber Q-switched at 976 nm and gain-switched at 1064 nm, using the method of mode-field-area mismatch. With a pump power of 105 mW, the laser iteratively produced a 976-nm pulse with an energy of 2.8 mu J and a duration of 280 ns, followed by a 1064-nm pulse with 1.1 mu J and a 430-ns duration at a repetition rate of 9 kHz. A set of rate equations was established to simulate the self-balancing mechanism and the correlation between the Q-and gain-switched photon numbers and the populations of the gain and absorber fibers. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America