Resonantly pumped single frequency Er:YAG laser at 1645 nm

An efficient and single frequency Er:YAG laser pumped by an MGo:PPLN laser locked at 1532 nm with double F-P etalons was reported. The Er:YAG laser operated at 1645 nm, 550 mW of 1645 nm output was achieved under total incident pump power of 7 W. Using the etalons, 45 mW single frequency 1645.1 nm laser was achieved.     

Narrowband Er:YAG nonplanar ring oscillator at 1645 nm

We report 1645 nm narrowband operation of a monolithic Er:YAG nonplanar ring oscillator resonantly pumped at 1532 nm. Unidirectional cw power up to 0.5 W was obtained with a measured linewidth of 21 kHz.     

Kerr-lens mode-locked polycrystalline Cr:ZnS femtosecond laser pumped by a monolithic Er:YAG laser

We demonstrated a Kerr-lens mode-locked polycrystalline Cr:ZnS laser pumped by a narrow-linewidth linearpolarised monolithic Er:YAG nonplanar ring oscillator operated at 1645 nm. With a 5-mm-thick sapphire plate for intracavity dispersion compensation, a compact and stable Kerr-lens mode-locking operation was realised. The oscillator delivered 125-fs pulses at 2347 nm with an average power of 80 m W. Owing to the special polycrystalline structure of the Cr:ZnS crystal, the second to fourth harmonic generation was observed by random quasi-phase-matching.     

7.3 W of single-frequency output power at 2.09 mum from an Ho:YAG monolithic nonplanar ring laser

Single-frequency output power of 7.3 W at 2.09 mum from a monolithic Ho:YAG nonplanar ring oscillator (NPRO) is demonstrated. Resonantly pumped by a Tm-doped fiber laser at 1.91 mum, the Ho:YAG NPRO produces 71% of slope efficiency with respect to absorbed pump power and nearly diffraction-limited output with a beam quality parameter of M(2) approximately 1.1.     

Q-switched Er:YAG lasers resonantly pumped by Erbium fiber laser

The study describes efficient, acousto-optic Q-switching of Er:YAG laser at the 1645 nm eye-safe wavelength. For longitudinal pumping at wavelength 1532 nm, linear-polarized 10 W Erbium fiber laser radiation was used. The investigated Er:YAG crystals were 25 and 40 mm long and their Erbium concentration was 0.20 and 0.25%, respectively. For giant pulse generation, a fused silica acousto-optic modulator was inserted inside the Er:YAG laser oscillator. For a maximum incident pump power of 7.95 W, pulse energy up to 4.1 mJ was generated with pulse duration 34 ns at 500-Hz repetition rate; the corresponding peak power was 119 kW.     

In-band pumped Er:YAG ceramic laser with 11 W of output power at 1645 nm

We report on a high power polycrystalline Er:YAG ceramic laser in-band pumped by a cladding-pumped Er, Yb fiber laser wavelength locked at 1532 nm with a volume Bragg grating. Using 1.0 at % Er³⁺-doped ceramic as the gain medium and an output coupler of 10% transmission, the laser had a threshold pump power of ∼1.5 W and generated 11 W of continuous-wave output at 1645 nm for 23.3 W of incident pump power at 1532 nm, corresponding to a slope efficiency with respect to incident pump power of 51%.     

High-power Er:YAG laser with quasi-top-hat output beam

A simple method for simultaneously exciting the fundamental (TEM00) transverse mode and first order Laguerre-Gaussian (LG01) donut mode in an end-pumped solid-state laser to yield a quasi-top-hat output beam is reported. This approach has been applied to an Er:YAG laser, in-band pumped by an Er,Yb fiber laser, yielding 9.6 W of continuous-wave output at 1645 nm in a top-hat-like beam with beam propagation factor (M2)<2.1 for 24 W of incident pump power at 1532 nm. The corresponding slope efficiency with respect to incident pump power was 49%. The prospects of further scaling of output power and improved overall efficiency are considered.     

Efficient 1645-nm Er:YAG laser

We report a resonantly fiber-laser-pumped Er:YAG laser operating at the eye-safe wavelength of 1645 nm, exhibiting 43% optical efficiency and 54% incident slope efficiency and emitting 7-W average power when repetitively Q switched at 10 kHz. To our knowledge, this is the best performance (conversion efficiency and average power) obtained from a bulk solid-state Q-switched erbium laser. At a 1.1-kHz pulse repetition frequency the laser produces 3.4-mJ pulses with a corresponding peak power of 162 kW. Frequency doubling to produce 822.5-nm, 4.7-kW pulses at 10 kHz was performed to demonstrate the laser's utility.     

Efficient Resonantly-Pumped Tm:Y2O3 Ceramic Laser

Journal of Russian Laser Research - We present an efficient continuous wave Tm:Y2O3 ceramic laser resonantly pumped by a 1645 nm Er:YAG laser. With an absorbed pump power of 5.9 W, we achieve a...     

High-power polycrystalline Er:YAG ceramic laser at 1617 nm

We report on the efficient operation of a high-power erbium-doped polycrystalline Er:YAG ceramic laser at 1617 nm resonantly pumped by a high-power 1532 nm Er,Yb fiber laser. Lasing characteristics of Er:YAG ceramics with different Er3+ concentrations are evaluated and compared. With an output coupler of 15% transmission and 0.5 at. % Er3+-doped YAG ceramic as the gain media, the laser generates 14 W of output power at 1617 nm for 28.8 W of incident pump power at 1532 nm, corresponding to a slope efficiency with respect to incident pump power of 51.7%.     

1645 nm Q-Switched resonantly pumped Er:YAG laser

A resonantly pumped Q-switched Er:YAG laser at 1645 nm was reported. 1 mJ of output pulse energy was achieved for Q-switched operation at 100 Hz repetition rate under total incident pump power of 4 W. An output peak power of 14 kW and pulse width of 60.6 ns were obtained.     

Frequency stabilization of a monolithic Nd:YAG ring laser by controlling the power of the laser-diode pump source

The frequency of a 700-mW monolithic nonplanar Nd:YAG ring laser (NPRO) depends, with a large coupling coefficient (megahertz per milliwatt), on the power of its laser-diode pump source. Using this effect, we demonstrate frequency stabilization of a NPRO to a frequency reference by feeding back to the current of its pump diodes. We achieved an error-point frequency noise smaller than 1mHz/ radicalHz and, simultaneously, a reduction of the power noise of the NPRO by 10 dB without an additional power-stabilization feedback system.     

The Verdet constant of Er-doped crystalline YAG and tellurite glass at 1645 nm

We describe the measurement of the Verdet constant of undoped and Er-doped crystalline YAG and tellurite glass at 1645 nm. The undoped YAG value is compared to those measured using visible light. We show that the paramagnetic nature of Er reduces the Verdet constant but that the decrease is probably not significant for the typical Er doping levels used in Er:YAG or in Er:tellurite-glass mid-IR lasers.     

Laser-diode-pumped 1319-nm monolithic non-planar ring single-frequency laser

Single-frequency 1319-nm laser was obtained by using a laser-diode-pumped monolithic Nd:YAG crystal with a non-planar ring oscillator (NPRO). When the NPRO laser was pumped by an 800-μm fiber coupled laser diode, the output power of the single-frequency 1319-nm laser was 220 mW, and the slope efficiency was 16%. With a 100-μm fiber coupled diode laser pumped, 99-mW single-frequency 1319-nm laser was obtained with a slope efficiency of 29%.     

1.6 μm Er:YAP and Er:YAG lasers resonantly pumped by Er:glass laser

1623 nm Er:YAP and 1648 nm Er:YAG lasers resonantly pumped by a solid state Er:glass laser operating at 1535 nm were investigated. Laser generation was reached for Er:YAP and two Er:YAG crystals with different Er ion concentration. The maximal output energies were 20 and 45 mJ for Er:YAP and Er:YAG laser systems, respectively.     

Highly efficient Tm:YAG ceramic laser resonantly pumped at 1617 nm

We report on a highly efficient polycrystalline Tm:YAG ceramic laser in-band pumped by an Er:YAG laser at 1617 nm. Lasing characteristics of 4.0 and 6.0 at.%Tm(3+)-doped YAG ceramics were investigated and compared. With an output coupler of 10% transmission, a maximum output power of 7.3 W was obtained at 2015 nm under 12.8 W of incident pump power, corresponding to a slope efficiency with respect to incident pump power of 62.3%.     

Application of mid-infrared laser radiation for lithotripsy

The perforation effects of Er:YAG (2940 nm) and Ho:YAG (2100 nm) lasers radiation on human urinary stones model made from compressed plaster and real human samples were compared in vitro. For mid-infrared laser radiation delivery the special COP/Ag hollow glass waveguides were used. From the interaction experiments the perforation rates were derived and compared for both lasers. From the results it can be evaluated that Er:YAG laser radiation is favourable in comparison with Ho:YAG laser in case of artificial samples perforation efficiency.     

An all-fiber type Er~(3+)/Yb~(3+) co-doped fiber laser

In this paper, a distributed Bragg reflection (DBR) type Er~(3+)/Yb~(3+) co-doped fiber laser of high output power and high slope efficiency was developed. Its gain medium was a 4.45-m-long Er3+/Yb3+ co-doped fiber. When it was pumped by a 1064-nm Nd:YAG, the linewidth of output laser was measured as 0.072 nm by 3 dB and 0.192 nm by 25 dB at 1552.08 nm. The maximum output power was measured as 69 mW. Its power stability was < 5%, side mode suppression ratio was 59 dB, and the output wavelength stability was ±0.01 nm. The laser had a threshold of 12 mW and a slope efficiency of 22%.     

Single-frequency 1.25 W monolithic lasers at 1123 nm

Experimental investigation ofd Nd:YAG monolithic nonplanar ring lasers operated at 1123 nm wavelength is presented. Stable single-frequency 1123 nm laser output has been obtained with successful suppression of the strong 1064 nm radiation. Single-frequency output power of 1.25 W is demonstrated with a pump power of 3.98 W at 808 nm, which gives a slope efficiency of 39%. The laser frequency tuning range is over 3 GHz, and the average tuning rate with temperature is -2.6 GHz/ degrees C. A strong iodine absorption line can be covered within the laser frequency tuning range.     

Short-term frequency characteristics of 2 µm single frequency Solid-state lasers

The Short term frequency stability characteristics of 2 μm single frequency Solid-state lasers was investigated. The two laser systems of 2 μm single longitudinal mode oscillation Tm, Ho:YLF microchip laser and Ho:YAG NPRO laser were designed and constructed. The Short term frequency stability of these two laser were measured with the fiber delay self-beating heterodyne method. The 3dB width of the relative frequency fluctuation of Tm, Ho:YLF microchip laser and Ho:YAG NPRO laser were measured to be 895 and 736 Hz with 500 m fiber optical (2.5 μs delay). The proportional relation between the lasing fluctuation and the delay time were 358 and 263 Hz/μs, respectively. The vibration experiment was presented and it indicated that the NPRO Ho:YAG was more terrible to the influence of vibration, which is important in the practical application of wind measurement lidar.