Fiber laser dynamics with saturable absorber on side-polished fiber

Abstract

In this thesis, we investigated passive dynamics of fiber laser with parameters of saturable component in the laser cavity. Based on theoretical guidelines of the passive laser dynamics, multi-functional saturable absorber which can promote different forms of laser output state in the given cavity parameters was fabricated and tested. As a result, we demonstrated four different laser operational states in the same passive fiber ring laser cavity by controlling solely the polarization state in a saturable absorber. The demonstrated laser operational states were continuous wave, mode-locking, Q-switching, and Q-switched mode-locking. The saturable absorber was fabricated by spin-coating a single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT)/polymer composite on a side polished fiber providing enhanced nonlinear interaction with the SWCNT. The wide tuning range of the saturable absorber allows the simple means to generate different forms of laser output from a single laser cavity.