Mid-infrared Er:ZBLAN fiber laser reaching 3.68 μm wavelength

We report a continuous-wave Er:ZBLAN fiber laser with the operation wavelength reaching 3.68 μm.The midinfrared Er:ZBLAN fiber laser is pumped with the dual-wavelength sources consisting of a commercial laser diode at 970 nm and a homemade Tm-doped fiber laser at 1973 nm.By increasing the launched pump power at1973 nm,the laser wavelength can be switched from 3.52 to 3.68 μm.The maximum output power of 0.85 W is obtained with a slope efficiency of 25.14% with respect to the 1973 nm pump power.In the experiment,the laser emission at 3.68 μm is obtained with a significant power of 0.62 W,which is the longest emission wavelength in free-running Er:ZBLAN fiber lasers.     

2277-W continuous-wave diode-pumped heat capacity laser

A high power continuous-wave (CW) diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser operated in heat capacity mode is demonstrated by use of two identical highly efficient diode-pumped laser heads placed in a plane-plane resonator.The laser heads are uniformly pumped with a five-fold symmetrical side-pumping configuration, and each head is able to output maximum output power of 2200 W at 808 nm.Under a total pump power of 4290 W,the output power of the laser at 1064 nm is up to 2277 W,corresponding to an optical-to-optical efficiency of 53.1%.     

A Stable Diffusion-Bonded Tm：YLF Bulk Laser with High Power Output at a Wavelength of 1889.5 nm

A high power diode-pumped diffusion-bonded Tm：YLF laser operating at 1889.5nm with a FWHM linewidth of less than 0.1 nm is reported. A Brewster plate and two Fabry-Perot etalons are inserted in the laser cavity for spectral narrowing and stabilization. Under an incident pump power of 136.8 W, 46.1 W of output power is achieved, corresponding to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 33.7% and a slope efficiency of 42.8%. The laser wavelength shift of only 0.07nm with the incident pump power from 20.1 W to 136.8W is observed. The M2 factor at maximum output power is calculated to be 2.3 in the x-axis and 2.0 in the y-axis, respectively.     

Reducing Thermal Effect in End-Diode-Pumped Laser Crystal by Using a Novel Resonator

We report a new way, i.e. double-end-pumping, to extend the stability range of a laser resonator, in advantage of making the thermal loading be effectively divided between the ends of the laser crystal to reduce the thermal effect, thus to extend the stability range. Using this new way, we experimentally obtained a 2.7-W cw laser source at 671 nm by intracavity frequency doubling of 1342nm ofa Nd:YVO4 laser based on the nonlinear crystal LIB3O5. The maximum pump power is 28 W, which is higher than 13 W of the single-end-pumping.     

All-solid-state quasi-continuous-wave high power dispersion cavity tunable Ti:sapphire laser

An all-solid-state quasi-continuous-wave dispersion cavity tunable Ti:sapphire laser pumped by a laser diode pumped frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser is reported. Using a dense flint glass prism as the dispersion element, a tuning range from 730 to 880 nm with the linewidth of 3 nm and the pulse width of 17.2ns was obtained. The maximum output power of this laser system was 5.6 W at 786.3 nm corresponding to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 25.5% under the pump power of 22 W.     

All-solid-state quasi-continuous-wave high power dispersion cavity tunable Ti:sapphire laser

An all-solid-state quasi-continuous-wave dispersion cavity tunable Ti:sapphire laser pumped by a laser diode pumped frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser is reported. Using a dense flint glass prism as the dispersion element, a tuning range from 730 to 880 nm with the linewidth of 3 nm and the pulse width of 17.2 ns was obtained. The maximum output, power of this laser system was 5.6 W at 786.3 nm corresponding to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 25.5% under the pump power of 22 W.     

Diode-pumped high-efficiency broadband tunable Tm:YAP laser

A laser diode-pumped high-efficiency widely tunable Tm:YAP laser with excellent comprehensive properties is reported.The output power is stable at a given pump power.Under the absorbed pump power of 12.95 W,the maximum output power at 2,010 nm is 5.16 W,corresponding to a slope efficiency of 45.5%.The generated beam profile is close to the Gaussian TEM00 near the maximum pump power.Furthermore,the laser working wavelength can be continuously tuned through optimization from 1,894 to 2,066 nm,which is the widest tunable range for Tm:YAP lasers to date.     

Performance of gain-switched all-solid-state quasi-continuous-wave tunable Ti:sapphire laser system

We have made a gain-switched all-solid-state quasi-continuous-wave （QCW） tunable Ti：sapphire laser system, which is pumped by a 532 nm intracavity frequency-doubled Nd：YAG laser. Based on the theory of gain-switching and the study on the influencing factors of the output pulse width, an effective method for obtaining high power and narrow pulse width output is proposed. Through deliberately designing the pump source and the resonator of the Ti：sapphire laser, when the repetition rate is 6 kHz and the length of the cavity is 220 mm, at an incident pump power of 22 W, the tunable Ti：sapphire laser from 700 to 950nm can be achieved. It has a maximum average output power of 5.6W at 800nm and the pulse width of 13.2 ns, giving an optical conversion efficiency of 25.5% from the 532 mn pump laser to the Ti：sapphire laser.     

Harmonically pump a femtosecond optical parametric oscillator to 1.13 GHz by a femtosecond 515 nm laser

We demonstrate a harmonically pumped femtosecond optical parametric oscillator(OPO)laser using a frequency-doubled mode-locked Yb:KGW laser at a repetition rate of 75.5 MHz as the pump laser.Based on a bismuth borate nonlinear crystal,repetition rates up to 1.13 GHz are realized,which is 15 times that of the pump laser.The signal wavelength is tunable from 700 nm to 887 nm.The maximum power of the signal is 207 m W at the central wavelength of 750 nm and the shortest pulse duration is 117 fs at 780 nm.The beam quality(M^2 factor)in the horizontal and vertical directions of the output beam are 1.077 and 1.141,respectively.     

A Laser-Diode-Pumped 7.36 W Continuous-Wave Nd：YVO4 Laser At 1342 nm

An efficient and high-power diode-laser single-end-pumped Nd：YVO4 laser with cw emission at 1342nm is presented. With a crystal single-end-pumped by a fibre-coupled diode laser, an output power of 7.36 W is obtained from the laser cavity of concave-convex, eorresponding to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 32.8%. The laser is operated in TEM00 mode with small rms noise amplitude of 0.3%. This represents, to the best of our knowledge, the highest power obtained from a diode-laser single-end-pumped Nd：YVO4 cw laser at 1342nm 80 far.     

High-power and wavelength tunable diode-pumped continuous wave Yb:SSO laser

A wavelength-tunable,efficient,and high-average power single diode-pumped continuons wave(CW) Yb:SSO laser is reported.A maximum output power of 8.8 W at 1 062.6 nm is obtained using the absorbed pump power of 11.7 W,which corresponds to a slope efficiency of 85.5% and an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 48.9%.The wavelength tuning of the Yb:SSO laser pumped by the 976-nm LD is also investigated.The results show the tuning range from 1 002.30 to 1 068.47 nm,which corresponds to a tunability range of 66.17 nm.     

Q-Switched Large-Mode-Area Yb-Doped Fibre Laser Using GaAs as Saturable Absorber

A passive Q-switched large-mode-area Yb-doped fibre laser is demonstrated using a GaAs wafer as the saturable absorber. A high Yb doping concentration double-clad fibre with a core diameter of 30μm and a numerical aperture of 0.07 is used to increase the laser gain volume, permitting greater energy storage and higher output power than conventional fibres. The maximum average output power is 7.2W at 1080nm wavelength, with the shortest pulse duration of 580ns and the highest peak power of 161W when the laser is pumped with a 25W diode laser operating at 976nm. The repetition rate increases with the pump power linearly and the highest repetition rate of 77kHz is obtained in the experiment.     

High power linearly polarized Raman fiber laser at 1120 nm

An all-fiber linearly polarized Raman fiber laser at 1120 nm is demonstrated. With a 1 070-nm linearly polarized Yb-doped fiber laser as pump source, an output of up to 7.7 W at 1120 nm is obtained with an optical efficiency of 55%. The polarization extinction ratio of the linearly polarized Raman fiber is higher than 18 dB. A numerical simulation model is developed to determine the Raman coefficient of the gain fiber and to evaluate the laser performance. The spectral isolation between the Raman fiber laser and the pump fiber laser is determined to be necessary for further improvements of performance.     

Laser Characteristics of Cladding-Pumped Short Er^3＋/yb^3＋ Codoped Single Mode Phosphate Glass Fibre

We experimentally investigate the laser characteristics of a series of short pieces of newly-developed Er^3＋/ Yb^3＋ codoped single mode phosphate glass fibres via the cladding pump of a 976nm multimode laser diode. A stable continuous-wave single transverse mode laser with over 85 m W at 1553nm is generated from a 5.5-em-long active fibre. Single mode laser output power per unit length is up to 15 mW/cm. Moreover, the slope efficiency is 11.8% when the pump power is below 940mW and the 3dB linewidth is 0.06nm at the maximum pump power. The numerical simulation results show that the laser emission slope efficiency can exceed 20% by means of increasing the coupling efficiency of the pump to the fibre core further.     

High Power Continuous-Wave and Acousto-Optic Q-Switched Nd：GdVO4 Laser Operated at 912 nm

We present a high power and efficient operation of the ^4F3/2 → ^4I9/2 transition in Nd：GdVO4 at 912nm. In the cw mode, the maximum output power of 8.6 W is achieved when the incident pump power is 40.3 W, leading to a slope efficiency of 33.3% and an optical-optical efficiency of 21.3%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest cw laser power at 912nm obtained with the conventional Nd：GdVO4 crystal. Pulsed operation of 912nm laser has also been realized by inserting a small aeousto-optie （A-O） Q-Switch inside the resonator. As a result, the minimal pulse width of 20ns and the average laser power 1.43 W at the repetition rate of lOkHz are obtained, corresponding to 7.1 kW peak power. We believe that this is the highest laser peak power at 912nm. Furthermore, duration of 65ns has also been acquired when the repetition rate is 100 kHz.     

High power red laser generation by second harmonic generation with GTR-KTP crystal

In this Letter, a gray-tracking-resistant—potassium titanyl phosphate(GTR-KTP) crystal is used for intracavity frequency doubling red laser generation for the first time. Under the 808 nm LD pump power of 180 W, as high as 12.5 W of red laser output is obtained with the optimum repetition rate of 7 k Hz. Within the red laser power variation range between the maximum to 70%, a temperature tolerance is measured to be 35°C. The results prove that GTR-KTP should be a potential nonlinear crystal for red laser generation.     

A Diode-Pumped 1617 nm Single Longitudinal Mode Er：YAG Laser with Intra-Cavity Etalons

We demonstrate the continuous wave p-polarized single longitudinal mode （SLM） operation of an Er：YAG laser at 1617.6nm pumped by a diode-laser with three inserted Fabry-Perot （FP） etalons at room temperature. The Brewster angle inserted FP is applied to obtain the p-polarized laser. For free running, the maximum output power is 570 m W with a pump power of 12.5 W. An incident pump power of 12.5 W is used to generate the maximum p-polarized single longitudinal mode output power of 78.5 m W, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 1.6% and an optical-to-optical efficiency of 0.61%. The beam quality M2 is measured to be 1.15 at the highest SLM output power. This stable polarized SLM oscillation is encouraging due to its application for an injection-locked system used as a master laser.     

Experimental 511 W Composite Nd：YAG Ceramic Laser

We demonstrate a 511 W laser diode pumped composite Nd：YAG ceramic laser. The optical pumping system is consisted of five laser diode stacked arrays arranged in a pentagonal shape around the ceramic rod whose size is φ6.35×144mm. When the pumping power is 1600 W, the cw laser output up to 511 W at 1064nm can be obtained with a linear piano-piano cavity, and the optical-to-optical efficiency is 31.9%. To our knowledge, this is the highest value of laser output by using a newly invented composite Nd：YAG ceramic rod as the gain medium.     

Electro-optically Q-switched 946 nm laser of a composite Nd:YAG crystal

A depolarization phenomenon in an electro-optical crystal in a quasi-three-level 946 nm Nd:YAG laser is observed. A compensation of the thermal effects in electro-optical crystals is achieved by employing a quarter-wave plate, with one optical axis parallel to the laser polarization. This technique allows for the production of an electro-optically Q-switched 946 nm Nd:YAG laser at 1 k Hz. A maximum output power of 350 m W at 1 k Hz repetition frequency and 11 ns pulse duration are achieved with an output coupler of 10% transmission under the incident pump power of 11.1 W, corresponding to a peak power of ～32 k W.     

Performance of a monolithic Tm:YLF micro laser

We report a monolithic Tm:YLF micro laser in this Letter. In order to improve the relaxation oscillation of the laser, both ends of the crystal are coated, making the Tm:YLF crystal itself a resonant cavity. The micro laser is pumped by a 792 nm laser diode operated in the continuous wave(CW) mode. We obtain maximum output powers of 7.78 and 10.4 W at the total incident power of 43.6 W with focus lenses of 37.5 and 40 mm, respectively,corresponding to the slope efficiencies of 25.6% and 40.0% and the optical–optical conversion efficiencies of 17.8%and 23.8%. It is clear that the amplitude of the relaxation oscillation is smaller and the beam quality is better with the focus length of 37.5 mm; however, the laser with the focus length of 40 mm produces a higher output power and a more stable wavelength centering at 1878.44 nm.