Passive Q-switching of a fiber laser using a side-polished birefringent fiber with index matching gel spread on the flat side

We experimentally demonstrate the use of a side-polished birefringent fiber with index matching gel spread on the flat side as a passive Q-switch for the implementation of an all-fiberized, erbium-doped fiber (EDF)-based Q-switched laser. It is shown that Q-switched pulses with a ~2.5-μs temporal width are readily achievable from an EDF ring cavity using the side-polished birefringent fiber-based Q-switch. The tuning capability of the pulse width and the repetition rate by changing the pump power is also investigated.