High stability passively Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser based on CuFeO2 microcrystals

Abstract

We demonstrate the excellent nonlinear optical absorption of CuFeO2 (CFO) microcrystals (MCs) and realise nanosecond passively Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) based on CFO MCs as saturable absorber (SA). The CFO MCs-based SA has a modulation depth of 13.5% and an unsaturated loss of 12.6%. The threshold of stable Q-switched EDFL is only 30 mW, and the obtained repetition rate and pulse duration are 70.9 KHz and 690 ns respectively under 225 mW pump power. High signal-to-noise ratio of up to 70 dB proves its stability. Our results show that CFO MCs are a promising material for optoelectronic devices.