Fei WANG^1,3, Deyuan SHEN^1,2*, Hao CHEN^1,2, Dianyuan FAN², and Qisheng LU³

¹School of Physical Science and Electronic Engineering, Xuzhou Normal University, Xuzhou 221116, China
²Department of Optical Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
³Institute of Directed Energy Technology, College of Opto-Electronic Science and Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China

(Received December 1, 2010; Accepted April 27, 2011)

A numerical model that describes the operation behaviors and output characteristics of stable gain-switched Tm-doped fiber (Tm:fiber) lasers resonantly pumped at 1.56 μm is presented in this paper. Effects of some important laser parameters, such as repetition rates, pump power levels, transmission of the laser output coupler, fiber core sizes, fiber lengths, Tm concentrations, etc., on laser output were investigated. The model and simulating results were verified by preliminary experiments and good agreements have been achieved, suggesting that the model are useful for design and optimization of stable gain-switched Tm:fiber lasers at 2 μm wavelength region.

Key words: Tm:fiber laser, modeling, gain-switched, peak power, pulse width

^*E-mail address: shendy@fudan.edu.cn