Self-induced pulsing in Tm~(3+)-doped fiber lasers with different outputcouplings

摘要

Under the pump of a diode laser at 790 nm, self-pulsing phenomena of ~2μmTm~(3+)-doped fiber lasers are investigated.Laser cavity configuration is changed by using different output-coupling mirrors. When the polished fiber-end (Fresnelreflection) is used as the output coupler, the cavity is dubbed as "bad" cavity. With this "bad" cavity, regular laser pulsetrains can be obtained near threshold pump level. The pulse width and repetition rate are several micro seconds andseveral kilohertz, respectively. At higher pump levels, the regular pulse-train shape is broken, and some random pulsesoccur. At the same time, similar mode-locking phenomenon can be observed. When the output coupler is changed to aT=10% (at 2μm) mirror, regular laser pulse train still can be observed near threshold pump. However, a slight increase ofpump leads to randomization of the pulse train. Similar mode-locking phenomenon was not observed with this kind ofcavity. When the output coupling is decreased to T=5%, even near the pump threshold, regular pulse train can not beachieved. With increased pump powers, laser output changes from pulse state to continuous wave. Based on theexperimental results, a theoretical model is proposed and the origin of self-pulsing is discussed.