Effects of wavelength filtering on pulse dynamics in a tunable, actively Q-switched fiber laser

Abstract We present a numerical simulation, validated by experimental analysis, of the effect of wavelength filtering on pulse dynamics of a wavelength-tunable Erbium-doped fiber Q-switched laser in a ring configuration. Travelling wave time-dependent model is implemented using finite difference time domain (FDTD) method to accurately simulate the population dynamics and the pulse evolution in the ring laser. Such a model is experimentally validated for a wavelength tunable Q-switched fiber laser and stable Q-switched pulses are obtained over a wavelength tuning range of ∼30 nm in the C-band.