Q-switched ytterbium-doped fiber laser by using FIrpic as a saturable absorber

This work demonstrates a Q-switched ytterbium-doped fiber laser (YDFL) by using an organic material as a saturable absorber (SA). The organic material is FIrpic and it was embedded into polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to form a thin film. The SA thin film was incorporated into the cavity to act as a Q-switcher. The Q-switching operation has a minimum pulse width of 2.4 mu s at a central wavelength of 1067 nm. The maximum peak power and pulse energy were 193.9 mW and 465 nJ, respectively. The Q-switch operation was stable and showed a high signal to noise ratio of 66.4 dB. To the best of authors' knowledge, this the first time that FIrpic has been used as a SA in the 1 mu m region. (C) 2019 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement