Pulsed fluoride glass fiber laser with near 3 µm operating wavelength

Practical realization of gain-switched Dy
³⁺
-doped ZBLAN fiber laser operating at 2.94 μm is reported. The laser is pumped by a 1.1 μm Q-switched ytterbium (III) fiber laser, which was constructed in-house. The ZBLAN fiber laser generates a stable pulse train with repetition rates spanning the range from 25 to 100 kHz. At the repetition rate of 50 kHz, the pulse width is 183 ns while energy and peak power are 0.72 μJ and 4 W, respectively.