Publication Date:
2016-04-08
Description:
We present a nanosecond Q-switched Erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser system operating at 1600 nm with a tunable repetition rate from 100 kHz to 1 MHz. A compact fiber coupled, acousto-optic modulator-based EDF ring cavity was used to generate a nanosecond seed laser at 1600 nm, and a double-cladding EDF based power amplifier was applied to achieve the maximum average power of 250 mW. In addition, 12 ns laser pulses with the maximum pulse energy of 2.4 μ J were obtained at 100 kHz. Furthermore, the Stokes shift by Raman scattering over a 25 km long fiber was measured, indicating that the laser can be potentially used to generate the high repetition rate pulses at the 1.7 μ m region. Finally, we detected the photoacoustic signal from a human hair at 200 kHz repetition rate with a pulse energy of 1.2 μ J, which demonstrates that a Q-switched Er-doped fiber laser can be a promising light source for the high speed functional photoacoustic imaging.
Print ISSN:
0003-6951
Electronic ISSN:
1077-3118
Topics:
Physics
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