We report the experimental setup of a high power pulsed erbium-doped fiber amplifier. An optical signal at 1550 nm emitted by a distributed feedback laser is amplified by two identical stages in reflective configuration using one fiber Bragg grating at each one of those. We demonstrated that for pulses with a frequency of 20 kHz and temporal duration of 10, 50, 100, and 500 ns, it is possible to obtain output peak powers of 41, 22, 18, and 11 W, respectively. We applied our high power amplifier in the characterization of nonlinear optical transmission of single-wall carbon nanotubes deposited on single mode optical fibers end-face by the photodeposition technique. Our results show that the high power system is ideal for carrying out studies of nonlinear effects in optical fibers as well as nonlinear characterization of nanostructured materials deposited on optical fibers.