High Peak Power Q-switched Er:ZBLAN Fiber Laser

A practical realization of a diode pumped actively Q-switched Er
³⁺
-doped fluoride fiber laser operating near 2.78 μm is reported. For the repetition rate of 100 Hz stable 26 ns pulses with an energy of 330 μJ and peak power of 12.7 kW are demonstrated. The laser performance is tested against variations in pump power, repetition rate and active fiber length.