Optimization of cavity configuration of a Q-switched fibre laser

We report the results of a study aimed at optimizing the cavity configuration of an actively Q-switched Erbium-doped fibre laser. We study the importance of extinction ratio of Acousto-Optic Modulator (AOM) on the cavity lasing performance and in turn the Q-switching efficiency. Two different configurations were studied with the aim of extracting the highest possible pulse energy without much pulse width variation. Finally, we report the use of our Q-switched laser to study non-linear interactions in a highly non-linear fibre (HNLF).