Rapid Decay of Type-II Femtosecond Laser Inscribed Gratings Within Q -switched Yb ^ -Doped Fiber Lasers

Fiber lasers that utilize femtosecond (fs) laser inscribed type-II fiber Bragg gratings within the active medium are known to produce stable output powers in excess of 100 W during continuous-wave operation. However, here we show that the gratings undergo rapid annealing when employed as high reflec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIEEE photonics technology letters Vol. 22; no. 7; pp. 504 - 506
Main Authors Aslund, M.L., Jovanovic, N., Canning, J., Jackson, S.D., Marshall, G.D., Fuerbach, A., Withford, M.J.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 01.04.2010
Subjects
Annealing
Bragg gratings
Bragg scattering
Fiber gratings
Fiber lasers
Laser feedback
Laser stability
optical fiber lasers
Optical fibers
Power lasers
Q -switched lasers
Semiconductor laser arrays
Ultrafast optics
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Summary:Fiber lasers that utilize femtosecond (fs) laser inscribed type-II fiber Bragg gratings within the active medium are known to produce stable output powers in excess of 100 W during continuous-wave operation. However, here we show that the gratings undergo rapid annealing when employed as high reflectors in pulsed Q -switched fiber lasers operating at average power levels of less than 0.5 W. We demonstrate that a combination of a high population inversion and a high optical field seems to drive this annealing process and point out similarities to photodarkening.
ISSN:1041-1135
1941-0174
DOI:10.1109/LPT.2010.2041346