Mode-lock, Q-switch and CW operation of an Yb-doped double-clad fiber ring laser

• Published in: Optics communications Vol. 198; no. 1; pp. 141 - 146
• Main Authors: Hideur, Ammar, Chartier, Thierry, Brunel, Marc, Salhi, Mohamed, Özkul, Cafer, Sanchez, François
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 15.10.2001; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Double-clad fiber laser; Dynamics of nonlinear optical systems; optical instabilities, optical chaos and complexity, and optical spatio-temporal dynamics; Exact sciences and technology; Fiber lasers; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); Laser optical systems: design and operation; Lasers; Mode locking; Modulation, tuning, and mode locking; Nonlinear optics; Nonlinear polarization rotation; Optics; Physics; Q-switching; Double-clad fiber laser; Q-switching; Nonlinear polarization rotation; Mode locking; Doubly clad fiber; Ytterbium additions; Laser mode locking; Ring lasers; Doped materials; Instability; Experimental study; Intracavity; Q switched laser; Nonlinear optics; Optical polarizers; Fiber lasers
• ISSN: 0030-4018; 1873-0310
• DOI: 10.1016/S0030-4018(01)01485-7

We investigate the dynamics of a high power unidirectional Yb-doped fiber ring laser with an intracavity polarizer placed between two halfwave plates. We show that, depending on the respective orientation of the phase plates, the laser operates in different regimes: CW, Q-switched, mode locked, or unstable. The passive method exposed here allows us to choose the operating regime of the laser by a simple rotation of a halfwave plate.