CW-pumped evanescent amplification based on side-polished fiber with heavily Er3+-doped glass overlay

A novel diffractive-pumping scheme is proposed to improve the evanescent amplification using blazed fiber grating for the first time. We also investigate the cw-pumped-evanescent amplification at 1.55 mu m wavelength with the relative optical gain pumped at 1480 nm of around 2 dB based on side-polished fiber with the effective interaction length as long as 16 mm and with a heavily Er3+-doped (N-Er(3+) > 1.19 x 10(21) ions/cm(3)), low refractive index (n(1550) < 1.47) glass overlay, which has no concentration quenching (tau(f) = 9.0 ms).

Laser-diode-pumped Cr4+,Nd3+: YAG with self-Q-switched laser output of 1.4 W

By use of a laser diode as a pump source, a self-Q-switched laser from a Cr,Nd:YAG crystal is demonstrated. The output Q-switched traces are very stable, the threshold pump power is 3.5 W, the pulse duration is 50 ns, and the slope efficiency is as high as 20%. In addition, the pulse width remains constant while the pulse repetition rate Varies with pump power. (C) 2000 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 140.0140, 140.2020, 140.3380, 140.3480, 140.3540, 140.3580.

Efficient diode-pumped Yb : Gd2SiO5 laser

An efficient diode-pumped laser was demonstrated by using an ytterbium-doped laser crystal, Yb:Gd2SiO5 (Yb:GSO), wherein Yb3+ ions exhibit the largest ground-state splitting among all the ytterbium-doped crystals. The Yb:GSO laser can be operated at a low pumping threshold, and the most efficient laser occurs around 1088 nm since the corresponding emission band has the largest emission cross section and the lowest thermal population. A slope efficiency of 75% was demonstrated for a continuous-wave Yb:GSO laser at 1094 nm, and self-pulsed lasers were achieved within the tunable range of 1091-1105 nm, which are the longest laser wavelengths achieved for Yb3+ lasers. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.

Efficient tunable diode-pumped Yb : LYSO laser

We demonstrated efficient laser action of a new ytterbium-doped oxyorthosilicate crystal Yb:LuYSiO5 ( Yb: LYSO) under high-power diode-pumping. The spectroscopic features and laser performance of the alloyed oxyorthosilicate crystal are compared with those of ytterbium-doped lutetium and yttrium oxyorthosilicates. In the continuous-wave laser operation of Yb: LYSO, a maximal slope efficiency of 96% and output power of 7.8 W were respectively achieved with different pump sources. The Yb: LYSO laser exhibits not only little sensitivity to the pump wavelength drift but also a broad tunability. By using a dispersive prism as the intracavity tuning element, we demonstrated that the continuous-wave Yb: LYSO laser exhibit a continuous tunability in the spectral range of 1014-1091 nm. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.

Low-threshold diode-pumped Yb3+, Na+: CaF2 self-Q-switched laser

For the first time to our knowledge, the laser performance of Yb3+, Na+-codoped CaF2 single crystals was demonstrated. Self-Q-switched laser operation at 1050nm was observed for 976 nm diode pumping at room temperature. On 5 W of incident power, the repetition rate and width of the self-Q-switched pulses reached 28 kHz and 1.5 mu s, respectively. A maximal slope efficiency of 20.3% and minimal threshold absorbed pump power of 30 mW were respectively achieved with different output couplers, showing the promising application of Yb3+, Na+-codoped CaF2 crystals as compact and efficient solid-state lasers. (C) 2005 Optical Society of America.

Characterization of diode-pumped laser operation of a novel Yb : GSO crystal

We report what is believed to be the first demonstration of the laser action of Yb3+ -doped Gd2SiO5 (Yb:GSO) crystal pumped by a 940-nm laser diode at room temperature. The threshold of laser generation is only 0.85 kW/cm(2), which is smaller than the theoretic threshold of Yb:YAG (1.54 kW/cm(2)). The laser wavelength is 1090 mn. With a 2.5% output coupler, the maximum output power is 415 mW under a pump power of 5 W. By using the SESAM, the Q-switched mode locking and CW mode-locked operations are demonstrated.

Ti:sapphire laser pumped high average power laser crystal Nd:GGG with high efficiency output

High-quality neodymium doped GGG laser crystals have been grown by Czochralski (Cz) method. Results of Nd:GGG thin chip laser operating at 1.064 μm pumped by Ti:sapphire laser operating at 808 nm were reported. The slop efficiency was as high as 20%.

Efficient diode-pumped Tm : YALO(3) laser with a pump recycling scheme

By using a pump recycling configuration, the maximum power of 8.1 W in the wavelength range 1.935-1.938 mu m is generated by a 5-mm long Tm:YAlO3 (4 at. %) laser operating at 18 degrees C with a pump power of 24 W. The highest slope efficiency of 42% is attained, and the pump quantum efficiency is up to 100%. The Tm:YAlO3 laser is employed as a pumping source of singly-doped Ho(l%):GdVO4 laser operating at room temperature, in which continuous wave output power of greater than 0.2 W at 2.05 mu m is achieved with a slope efficiency of 9%.

Diode-pumped passively q-switched Nd : YAG ceramic laser with a Cr4+: YAG crystal-satiable absorber

Transparent polycrystalline Nd:YAG ceramics were fabricated by solid-state reactive sintering a mixture of commercial Al2O3,Y2O3, and Nd2O3 powders. The powders were mixed in ethanol and doped with 0.5 wt% tetraethoxysilane, dried, and pressed. Pressed samples were sintered at 1750 degrees C in vacuum. Transparent fully dense samples with average grain sizes of 10 mu m were obtained. The 1 at.% Nd:YAG ceramic was used to research passively Q-switched laser output with a Cr4+:YAG crystal as a saturable absorber. An average output power of 94 mW with a pulse width of 50 ns was obtained when the incident pump power was 750 mW. The slope efficiency was 13%. The pulse energy is 5 mu J, and the peak power is about 100 W.

Diode-pumped Yb : YAG ceramic laser

Transparent polycrystalline Yb:YAG ceramics were fabricated by solid-state reactive sintering a mixture of commercial Al2O3, Y2O3, and Yb2O3 powders. The powders were mixed in ethanol and doped with 0.5 wt% tetraethoxysilane, dried, and pressed. Pressed samples were sintered at 1730 degrees C in vacuum. Transparent fully dense samples with grain sizes of several micrometers were obtained. The phase from 1500 degrees to 1700 degrees C was important for the grain growth, in which the grains grew quickly and a mass of pores were eliminated from the body of the sample. Annealing was an important step to remove the vacancies of oxygen and transform Yb2+ to Yb3+. The 1 at.% Yb:YAG ceramic sample was pumped by a diode laser to study the laser properties. The maximum output power of 1.02 W was obtained with a slope efficiency of 25% at 1030 nm. The size of the lasering sample was 4 mm x 4 mm x 3 mm.