Dysprosium gain-switched fiber laser at 3.24 µm pumped at 1064 nm

Abstract

We report a dysprosium-doped gain switched fluoride fiber laser pumped at 1064 nm and emitting at 3244 nm. Pulses with energies up to 1 µJ were generated on a wide range of repetition rates between 100 kHz and 200 kHz, the highest reported for a pulsed dysprosium-doped fiber laser, producing an average output power reaching 207 mW. Stable 8.9 µJ pulses were also generated near 10 kHz, which is the highest pulse energy reported to date from a 1.1 µm band pumped dysprosium-doped fiber laser. This shows the 1.1 µm band as a valuable alternative for the pumping of dysprosium-doped fiber lasers emitting far from the emission peak and is thus of potential interest for future field applications.