Novel erbium-doped crystal saturable absorber Q-switches for the Er:glass laser

Er:glass lasers are useful for a large number of applications because they emit in a narrow eye-safe region around 1.53 μm. For many of these applications a Q-switched pulse is required. Active Q-switches increase the complexity and the cost of the system. Passive Q-switches such as saturable absorbers remain the simplest and cheapest method.1-4