Self-pulsing in Er3+-doped fibre laser

The output intensity of an erbium-doped fibre laser was studied. Experiments were performed with three pumping wavelengths: 514.5 nm, 810 nm and 980 nm. The laser output intensity exhibits three different dynamical behaviours: steady-state, sinusoidal variation or self-pulsing. In particular, in a bad (high-loss) cavity configuration, when the pumping ratio is increased above the lasing threshold the output intensity changes continuously from a steady-state to an infinite train of pulses. We also show that, depending on the cavity configuration, the transient oscillations display different forms.