Gold nanobipyramids as a saturable absorber for passively Q-switched Er3+: ZBLAN fiber laser

We demonstrate a passively Q-switched Er3+: ZBLAN fiber laser using gold nanobipyramids (gold-NBPs) as a saturable absorber. The gold nanobipyramids aggregate film is formed by casting gold nanobipyramids aqueous sample onto an Au-coated mirror and hot inducing rapid drying in the oven with a temperature of 100 °C. A reflection-type saturable absorber mirror (SAM) is fabricated and inserted linear laser cavity of Er3+: ZBLAN fiber laser. The maximum average output power of 485 mW is obtained with the pulse width 612 ns and the pulse repetition rate 130 kHz. The corresponding peak power and pulse energy is 6.1 W and 3.7 μJ respectively.