12 W Q-switched Er:ZBLAN fiber laser at 2.8 µm.

ABSTRACT

A diode-pumped, actively Q-switched 2.8 µm fiber laser oscillator with an average output power of more than 12 W has been realized through the use of a 35 µm core erbium-doped ZBLAN fiber and an acousto-optic modulator; to our knowledge, this is the first 3 µm pulsed fiber laser in the 10 W class. Pulse energy up to 100 µJ and pulse duration down to 90 ns, corresponding to a peak power of 0.9 kW, were achieved at a repetition rate of 120 kHz.