Self-pulsation in fiber-coupled, on-chip microcavity lasers.

We report self-pulsation in an erbium-doped silica toroidal microcavity laser coupled to a tapered fiber and investigate the effects of pump power and taper-cavity coupling condition on the dynamic behaviors of the pulse train. The microcavity is pumped at 1444.8 nm, and lasing occurs at 1560.2 nm with a threshold of 12 microW. Experimental results are interpreted within the framework of ion-pair induced self-quenching model.