Gain saturation of a CW-pumped erbium-doped fiber amplifier for nanosecond pulses

We report on the gain saturation property of an erbium-doped fiber amplifier for high peak 100 ns pulses. Under CW pumping conditions, the 980 nm pump power dependence of the gain saturation is precisely measured. Pump power dependence is discussed by assuming that the pulse width is much shorter than the recovery time of the erbium population inversion.