Operation of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers and lasers pumped with frequency-doubled Nd:YAG lasers

An optical amplifier consisting of an erbium-doped germanosilicate fiber optically pumped at 532 nm is described. Negligible excited-state absorption at 532 nm allows efficient pumping, enabling a gain of 34 dB at 1536 nm to be obtained for only 25 mW of pump power. The pulsed pump source produces negligible noise on the small signal if the pump repetition rate is above 10 kHz. Pulsed laser operation is achieved by pumping a Fabry-Perot erbium-doped fiber laser with a frequency-doubled Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. Pulses of 0.9-W peak power and 280-ns duration at 1.538- mu m were obtained.<
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