Sodium carbonate for generating q-switched pulses in 1550 nm region

• Main Authors: Najm, Mustafa Mohammed, Nizamani, Bilal, Zhang, Pei, Salam, Sameer, Arof, Hamzah, Mokhtar, Norrima, Al-Hiti, Ahmed Shakir, Yasin, Moh, Harun, Sulaiman Wadi
• Format: Article
• Published: Taylor & Francis 2021
• Subjects: QC Physics; TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/35359/
• Institution: Universiti Malaya

In this study, we have experimentally demonstrated the sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) thin-film as a saturable absorber (SA) for Q-switched laser generation in erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) cavity. The Na2CO3 powder was embedded in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to fabricate the thin film. The Na2CO3 was then employed in an EDFL cavity for passively generating Q-switched pulses with a minimum pulse width of 1.2 mu s and maximum repetition rate of 94.7 kHz. The fundamental frequency of 94.7 kHz had the signal to noise ratio of 73.51 dB, which indicates the pulses were stable. The Q-switched laser operated at center wavelength of 1560 nm.