Coexistence of quasi-CW and SBS-boosted self-Q-switched pulsing in ytterbium-doped fiber laser with low Q-factor cavity

We report the results of an experimental study of an ytterbium-doped fiber laser with low Q-factor cavity. We demonstrate that the laser operates in two randomly alternating sub-regimes, quasi-CW (QCW) and self-Q-switching (SQS), the latter ignited by stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS). We show that probability of each sub-regime depends on pump power: QCW dominates slightly above the laser threshold while SQS pulsing prevails at higher pump powers. We also discuss the featuring details of QCW sub-regime and its role in instabilities (jittering) of SBS-boosted SQS pulsing as well as the statistical properties of the latter.