Pulse-burst Er:glass laser

We demonstrate a pulse-bursting phenomenon in Yb:Er glass laser operating at 1.54 μm. Glass-ceramic material with a low value of saturation threshold based on Co2+:β-ZnSiO4 nanocrystals was used as a passive gate for pulse-burst operation. The bursts of pulses were 1.5 ms long, each burst consisted of 40-55 pulses with 9-30 μJ energy per pulse and 0.2-3 μs pulse width. Bursting outputs arise via a coupling between slow switching arising via a slow pump modulation and fast pulsations resulting from Q-switch mechanism. We show that absorption cross-section strongly affects the mode of laser operation ranging from relaxation oscillations corresponding to low cross-section values to bursting and conventional Q-switch operation in the case of their higher values.