All-Fiber Q-Switched Erbium-Doped Fiber Ring Laser Using Phase-Shifted Fiber Bragg Grating

We propose a unique all-fiber Q-switched erbium-doped fiber ring laser. It consists of a phase-shifted fiber Bragg grating (FBG) and an apodized FBG reflector. By using the piezoelectric transducer (PZT) to periodically stretch the apodized FBG and detune it with the phases-shifted FBG, the cavity loss of the fiber ring laser is switched between high and low states to achieve Q-switching. This Q-switched fiber laser has advantages of narrow spectral bandwidth, stable oscillation wavelength, and the repetition rate of the Q-switched pulses can be double of the PZT modulation frequency. A numerical model is developed and presented to simulate and analyze this FBGs-based Q-switched fiber ring laser with consideration of the dynamic response of FBGs during Q-switching. We experimentally demonstrate 10 and 20 kHz Q-switching operation with 10 kHz PZT modulation frequency. The experimental result is similar to the simulation result.