A high efficiency Ho:YAlO<Subscript>3</Subscript> laser pumped by Tm:YLF laser with a Volume Bragg Grating

We report a CW Ho:YAlO₃ (Ho:YAP) laser at room temperature pumped by a Tm:YLF laser with a Volume Bragg Grating (VBG) instead of the conventional mirror. The Ho:YAP laser operated at 2117.9 nm with output power 9.12 W. The optical-to-optical conversion efficiency is 60.4% and slope efficiency is 71.2%. The Ho:YAP output wavelength is centered at 2117.9 nm with bandwidth of about 1 nm. The beam quality factor is M ² ∼ 1.29 measured by the traveling knife-edge method.     

High power and efficiency of a 2044-nm c-cut Tm, Ho:YAlO3 laser

A high power and efficiency of c-cut Tm, Ho:YAlO₃ (YAP) laser is reported in the paper. The laser operated in continuous wave (CW) mode or Acousto-optical (AO) Q-switched mode at 2044 nm. The Tm, Ho:YAP crystal was cooled at the temperature of 77 K and pumped by a fiber-coupled laser diode (LD) with the centre output wavelength of 794.8 nm. In CW operation, a 9.30-W output power was obtained at a 150-mm physical cavity length, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 42.5%. In Q-switch mode, the output average power of 9 W was achieved at the pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of 10 kHz with a 130-ns pulse width. Moreover, the energy per pulse of 3.54 mJ in 47 ns was acquired at 2.5 kHz with a 75.3-kW peak power.     

Continuous wave and AO Q-switch operation of a b-cut Tm,Ho:YAP laser with dual wavelengths pumped by a laser diode of 792 nm

Continuous wave (CW) and AO Q-switch operation of a b-cut Tm,Ho:YAP laser with dual wavelengths were reported in this paper. In the temperature of 77 K, the b-cut Tm,Ho:YAP crystal was double endpumped by a 7.21-W fiber-coupled laser diode (LD) at the center wavelength of 792 nm. A 1.17-W Q-switch output power was acquired at pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of 10 kHz, corresponding to an effective optical-optical conversion efficiency of 25.9% and an effective slope efficiency of 31.5%. The energy per pulse of 0.46 mJ in 100 ns was achieved at 2.5 kHz with the peak power of 4.6 kW.     

Continuous-wave operation of a room-temperature Ho:YAP laser pumped by a Tm:YAP laser

We reported the Ho:YAP laser pumped by the Tm:YAP laser. The Ho:YAP laser maximum output power was 4.91 W when the incident power was 10.1 W with the threshold of 2.63 W. The slope efficiency was 63.7%, corresponding to an optical-to-optical efficiency of 48.6%. The Ho:YAP output wavelength was centered at 2118.2 nm with bandwidth of about 1 nm. We estimate the beam quality to be M² = 1.29.     

Efficient continuous wave and Q-switched operation of a dual-end-pumped <Emphasis Type="Italic">c</Emphasis>-cut Tm:YAP laser

An efficient continuous wave (CW) and Q-switched c-cut Tm:YAP laser is reported in this letter. With the dual-end-pumped convex-concave resonator, CW output power up to 13.6 W at 1.99 μm was obtained under a total incident pump power of 50 W. The corresponding slope efficiency was 34.3% and conversion efficiency was 27.2%. The active Q-switched operation of the laser had an average output power of 12.5 W at 10 kHz pulse repetition frequency, with a minimum pulse width of 126 ns. With 6 kHz pulse repetition frequency, the maximum pulse energy of 1.6 mJ was obtained. In addition, using the Tm:YAP laser as a pumping source for gain-switched Cr:ZnSe laser, as much as 4 W output power in the wavelength range of 2.5–2.6 μm was obtained.     

Highly-Efficient Ho:S<Subscript>i</Subscript>Sc<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>5</Subscript> Laser Pumped by a Narrow Line-Width Tm:YAP Laser at 1.94 <Emphasis Type="Italic">μ</Emphasis>m

We present a highly-efficient continuous-wave Ho:SSO laser pumped by a diode-pumped Tm:YAP laser with a narrow linewidth (NL) of 0.3 nm. With the free-running (FR) Tm:YAP laser, we obtain a maximum output power of 2.23 W at an absorption pump power of 7.2 W, corresponding to an optical conversion efficiency of 31% and a slope efficiency of 42.6%. With the NL Tm:YAP laser, we obtain a maximum output power of 2.88 W at the same absorption pump power. The optical conversion efficiency increases to 40% when the slope efficiency increases to 55.5%. The output linewidth of the Ho:SSO laser is 0.8 nm when we use the Tm:YAP laser with a narrow linewidth of 1.8 nm pumped by a FR Tm:YAP laser. The beam quality also changes from 1.31 to 1.22.     

Q-switched Ho:YAP laser with a volume bragg grating pumped by a Tm-doped silicon fiber laser

We reported the Q-switched Ho:YAlO₃ laser with a volume Bragg grating pumped by the Tm doped fiber laser. The Ho:YAP laser maximum output energy was 1.04 mJ under the repetition frequency of 5 kHz when the incident power was 12.49 W with the threshold of 2.38 W. The Ho:YAP output wavelength was centered at 2117.9 nm with bandwidth of about 0.3 nm. The pulse width is 23.9 ns.     

Q-switch operation of a c-cut 2132-nm Tm, Ho:YAP laser pumped by a laser diode of 794.3 nm

Q-switch operation of a c-cut Tm (5 at %), Ho (0.3 at %):YAP laser at 2132 nm wavelength were reported in this paper. In the temperature of 77 K, the Tm, Ho:YAP crystal was double end-pumped by a 21.4-W fiber-coupled laser diode (LD) at the center wavelength of 794.3 nm. A 5.29-W Q-switch output power was acquired at pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of 10 kHz, corresponding to an optical-optical conversion efficiency of 24.7% and a slope efficiency of 28.1%. The energy per pulse of 3.57 mJ in 38 ns was achieved at 1.25 kHz with the peak power of 93.9 kW.     

Continuous-wave operation of a room-temperature Tm: YAP-pumped Ho: YAG laser

We report a continuous-wave (CW) 2.1-μm Ho:YAG laser operating at room temperature pumped by a diode-pumped 1.94-?m Tm:YAP laser.The maximum output power of 1.5 W is obtained from Ho:YAG laser,corresponding to Tm-to-Ho slope efficiency of 17.9% and diode-to-He conversion efficiency of 5.6%.     

Continuous-wave and Q-switched Operation of a Tm,Ho:YAP ring laser

We demonstrated continuous-wave (CW) and Q-switched operation of a Tm,Ho:YAP ring laser at 77 K. The maximum CW output power of 2 W at 2130.7 nm was obtained under the incident pump power of 12 W, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 23% and an optical-to-optical efficiency of 16.7%. For the Q-switched regime the maximum output energy of 5 mJ with the pulse width of 160 ns at the repetition rate of 100 Hz was achieved, corresponding to a peak power of 31.25 kW.     

High-power and efficiency continuous-wave operation of <Emphasis Type="Italic">a</Emphasis>-cut Ho:YAP laser at room temperature

We report the continuous-wave (CW) operation of a room-temperature a-cut Ho:YAP laser resonantly end-pumped by a diode-pumped Tm:YLF laser at 1.91 μm. A maximum CW output power of 14.6 W at 2118.7 nm for a-oriented Ho:YAP was obtained, corresponding to the slope efficiency of 69.35% and optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 63.04% with respect to absorbed pump power. The laser operated at a single mode (TEM₀₀) with the beam quality factor of M ² ∼ 1.51.     

A narrow linewidth continuous wave Ho:YAP laser with a volume Bragg grating

We report a diode-pumped CW Ho:YAP laser at room temperature with a volume Bragg grating (VBG) instead of the conventional mirror. The Ho:YAP laser operated at 2117.9 nm, with output power 8.1 W. The optical-to-optical conversion efficiency is 51.9% and slope efficiency is 61.1%. Also, a stable output and a narrow line width less than 0.3 nm FWHM are achieved. This is the first time to report a Ho:YAP laser with a volume Bragg grating.     

Q-switched operation of <Emphasis Type="Italic">a</Emphasis>-cut Ho:YAlO<Subscript>3</Subscript> laser pumped by a diode-pumped 1.91 μm thulium laser

Q-switched operation of a room temperature Ho:YAP laser was resonantly end-pumped by a diode-pumped Tm:YLF laser at 1.91 μm. The CW Ho:YAP laser generated 9.9 W of linearly output at 2119.03 nm with beam quality factor of M ² ∼1.46 with respect to absorbed pump power of 19.16 W, corresponding to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 51.7% and slope efficiency of 60.6%. Under Q-switched operation, the maximum output power of 9.8 W in relation to 10 kHz pulse repetition frequency (PRF) was obtained, however, the maximum peak power of 60 kW at the PRF of 5 kHz was demonstrated. At 5 kHz pulse energies of 1.92 mJ with pulse width of 32 ns was achieved.     

Laser spectrum of a high power Tm,Ho:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser

In this paper, we report a 18.8 W continuous wave and 18.4 W Q-switched diode-pumped cryogenic Tm(5 at %), Ho(0.5 at %):GdVO₄ laser. The pumping source of Tm, Ho:GdVO₄ laser is a fiber-coupled laser diode with fiber core diameter of 0.4 mm, supplying 42 W power at 802.5 nm. For input pump power of 41.9 W at 802.4 nm, the output power of 18.8 W in CW operation, optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 45% at 2.05 μm and the average output power of 18.4 W in Q-switched operation, optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 44% at 2.04 and 2.05 μm have been attained. The emission wavelengths of the Tm(5 at %), Ho(0.5 at %):GdVO₄ laser were firstly compared when it worked in CW mode and Q-switched mode.     

High-efficiency continuous-wave and Q-switched operation of a resonantly pumped Ho:YAP ring laser

We demonstrated continuous-wave (CW) and Q-switched operation of a room-temperature Ho:YAP ring laser that is resonantly end-pumped by a diode-pumped Tm:YLF laser at 1.91 ??m. Continuous wave output power of 3 W at 2119 nm is obtained under the absorbed pump power of 10.17 W, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 60%. For the Q-switched regime the maximum pulse energy of 1.58 mJ and the minimum pulse width of 590 ns at the repetition rate of 1 kHz are achieved.     

High efficient double end-pumped <Emphasis Type="Italic">b</Emphasis>-cut Tm,Ho:YAlO<Subscript>3</Subscript> laser

High efficient continuous wave (CW) and acousto-optical (AO) Q-switched operation of a b-cut Tm,Ho:YAlO₃ (Tm,Ho:YAP) laser are reported in the paper. The Tm,Ho:YAP crystal was cooled by liquid nitrogen and pumped by a fiber-coupled laser diode (LD). Different pump wavelengths were tried in the experiment. An 8.36-W output power was acquired at 2.12 μm in the CW operation with an optical-optical conversion efficiency of 33.3%, and an 8.14-W average power was obtained at the pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of 10 kHz with an optical-optical conversion efficiency of 32.4%.     

Room temperature single longitudinal mode Tm,Ho:Yap microchip laser at 2102.6 nm

Room temperature single-longitudinal-mode operation of a c-cut Tm(5%), Ho(0.3%):YAP microchip laser pumped by a fiber-coupled diode-laser is reported. An incident pump power of 3.06 W is used to generate the maximum single-frequency output power of 42 mW at 2102.6 nm, corresponding to optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 1.4%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time to report of Tm,Ho:YAP microchip laser operation on single-frequency at room temperature.     

A high power CW Ho,Tm:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser

In this paper, we report a 22.7 W continuous wave (CW) diode-pumped cryogenic Ho( at %), Tm(3 at %):GdVO₄ laser. The pumping sources of Ho,Tm:GdVO₄ laser are two fiber-coupled laser diodes with fiber core diameter of 0.4 mm, both of them can supply 42 W power laser operating near 802 nm. For input pump power of 64.7 W at 802.5 nm, the output power of 22.7 W in CW operation, optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 35.1% at 2.05 μm has been attained. The M ² factor was found to be 2.0 under an output power of 16.5 W.     

Room temperature single-frequency output at 2118 nm from a diode-pumped Tm,Ho:YAP laser

A diode end-pumped single-frequency Tm, Ho:YAP laser at room temperature was reported. We demonstrated a single-frequency Tm, Ho:YAP laser at 2118.09 nm wavelength with output power up to 57 mW using two Fabry-Perot intracavity etalons. The optical conversion efficiency is 2.0% and the slope efficiency is 12.7%. The measured full width at half maximum linewidth was <7.5 pm limited by the resolution of the scanning Fabry-Perot etalon used to make the measurement. The wavelength was demonstrated to be stable to about 2 pm over 40 s time periods limited by the temperature stability of the laser. The single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) laser can be used as a seed laser for coherent wind measurements and differential absorption LIDAR systems.     

8.30 μm singly resonant ZnGeP2 optical parametric oscillators pumped by a Tm,Ho:GdVO4 laser

A single resonator 8.30 μm ZnGeP₂ (ZGP) optical parametric oscillators (OPO) was reported in the paper. The OPO was pumped by a 10.2-W Tm,Ho:GdVO₄ laser at 8 kHz in a Q-switch mode, a 170-mW idler was obtained at 8.30 μm, and the output power of the idler and signal wave was 1.0 W, corresponding to an optical-optical conversion efficiency of 10.3% and a slope efficiency of 20.9%. Tm,Ho:GdVO₄ laser was pumped by a 30-W fiber-coupled laser diode (LD) at the center wavelength of 801 nm. The output wavelength of Tm,Ho:GdVO₄ laser was at 2.05 μm, and the energy per pulse of 1.28 mJ in 18 ns was achieved at 8 kHz with the peak power of 71.1 kW.