Q-switched ytterbium-doped fiber laser using graphene oxide as passive saturable absorber

Abstract A Q-switched ytterbium-doped fiber laser (YDFL) was demonstrated using Graphene Oxide (GO) as a saturable absorber (SA). Without SA, the ring cavity operates in a continuous wave laser at 1038 nm which is shifted to 1030 nm with the implementation of SA. The laser has a threshold pump power of 175 mW, a maximum repetition rate of 141 kHz and the shortest pulse width of 1.94?s. The highest pulse energy of 5.65 nJ is achieved at the pump power of 175mW. A stable Q-switched ytterbium doped fibre laser was successfully achieved in this experiment as the pulses measured SNR of 56.52 dB.