High-repetition rate acoustic-induced Q-switched all-fiber laser

We report a high-repetition rate actively Q-switched all-fiber laser. The acousto-optic interaction controls the coupling between co-propagating core and cladding modes and is used to modulate the optical losses of the cavity, which permits to perform active Q-switching. Using 1.4 m of 300 ppm Er-doped fiber and a maximum pump power of 120 mW, we have obtained up to 1 W peak power pulses, with a pulse repetition rate that can be continuously varied from 1 Hz to 120 kHz and a pulse width that changes from 70 ns to 2.2 μs.