Ytterbium-doped Q-switched fiber laser based upon manganese dioxide (MnO_2) saturable absorber

Manganese dioxide (MnO₂) is an abundant material that is widely used in many devices, such as alkaline batteries. At infrared frequencies, MnO₂ is lossy and strongly absorbs light. These characteristics make MnO₂ a potential candidate as a low-cost saturable absorber in Q-switched lasers. In this paper, we examine the performance of MnO₂ as a saturable absorber in an ytterbium-doped Q-switched fiber laser: we show that it can produce pulses with durations ranging from 300 to 1800 ns.