Abstract

Manganese dioxide (${\mathrm{MnO}}_2$) is an abundant material that is widely used in many devices, such as alkaline batteries. At infrared frequencies, ${\mathrm{MnO}}_2$ is lossy and strongly absorbs light. These characteristics make ${\mathrm{MnO}}_2$ a potential candidate as a low-cost saturable absorber in $Q$-switched lasers. In this paper, we examine the performance of ${\mathrm{MnO}}_2$ 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.

© 2016 Optical Society of America

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