Abstract

Rare-earth doped optical fiber has recently received renewed interest for LD- pumped tunable solid-state lasers. Their fiber geometry is the most promising feature, because of the very low connecting loss to the transmission fiber in optical fiber transmission systems. In addition, the high-energy confinement possible in optical fibers means that they exhibit excellent conversion efficiency. To date, many kinds of fiber lasers have been reported, which consist of a CW laser with single frequency oscillation(1), high peak-power pulse-laser based on the Q-switch and mode-lock technique(2)(3) and soliton pulse generator.(4) Among various applications of fiber lasers, Q-switched fiber lasers are useful light sources for optical measurement systems such as a OTDR (optical time domain reflectometer)(5).

© 1993 Optical Society of America