All-fiber Q-switched operation of thulium-doped silica fiber laser by piezoelectric microbending

We demonstrate an all-fiber Q-switched laser operation in the 2 μm region on the basis of a dynamic periodic microbend and pulsed-pump configuration. A single-mode thulium-doped silica fiber is pumped by 1.6 μm-band laser diodes, and the dynamic loss is introduced in the fiber ring resonator by the periodic microbend that is electrically controlled with a piezoelectric actuator. When the voltage-off period of the piezoelectric actuator is set at 20 μs for the pump power of 120 mW, the output pulse power is measured by 420 mW with a pulse width of 1.3 μs.