Abstract

Due to increasing demand of 1 μm Q-switched fiber lasers for material processing, a reliable and cost-effective saturable absorber is needed. YAG:Cr⁴⁺ crystal appears as a material completely fulfilling these requirements. Indeed, it is the most popular solution for saturable absorber for solid state lasers. However reliable integration of the widely available bulk saturable absorber in a fiber laser is a rather serious challenge. In this paper we present a novel waveguide design for a saturable absorber based on the YAG:Cr⁴⁺ crystal. Such a waveguide is designed to be compatible with conventional fibers. Hence, such Waveguide Saturable Absorber (WSA) features low-loss butt-coupling with all available Yb³⁺ and Nd³⁺-fiber lasers.

© 2009 IEEE