Room-temperature cw and pulsed operation of a diode-end-pumped Tm:YAP laser

We report the continuous-wave and acousto-optical Q-switched operation of a diode-end-pumped Tm:YAP laser. Continuous-wave output power of 3.5 W at 1.99 mu m was obtained under the absorbed pump power of 14 W. Under Q-switched laser operation, the average output power increased from 1.57 W to 2.0 W, with an absorbed pump power of 12.6 W, as the repetition rate increased from 1 kHz to 10 kHz. The maximum Q-switched pulse energy was 1.57 mJ with a repetition rate of 1 kHz. The minimum pulse width was measured to be about 80 ns, corresponding to a peak power of 19.6 kW.

Continuous-wave and Q-switched operation of a resonantly pumped Ho:YAlO3 laser

We demonstrated continuous-wave ( CW) and Q-switched operation of a room-temperature Ho: YAlO3 laser that is resonantly end-pumped by a diode-pumped Tm: YLF laser at 1.91 mu m. The CW Ho: YAlO3 laser generated 5.5 W of linearly polarized (E parallel to c) output at 2118 nm with beam quality factor of M-2 approximate to 1.1 for an incident pump power of 13.8 W, corresponding to optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 40%. Up to 1-mJ energy per pulse at pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of 5 kHz, and the maximum average power of 5.3-W with FWHM pulse duration of 30.5 ns at 20 kHz were achieved in Q-switched mode. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.

Diode-pumped continuous wave and Q-switched operation of a c-cut Tm,Ho:YAlO3 laser

We report on a diode-pumped, cryogenic and room temperature operation of a Tm,Ho:YAlO3 (c-cut) laser. In a temperature of 77 K, an optical-optical conversion efficiency of 27% and a slope efficiency of 29% were achieved with the maximum continuous-wave (CW) output power of 5.0 W at 2.13 mu m. Acousto-optic switched operation was performed at pulse repetition frequency (PRF) from 1 kHz to 10 kHz, the highest pulse energy of 3.3 mJ in a pulse duration of 40 ns was obtained. In room temperature (RT), the maximum CW power of Tm,Ho:YAlO3 laser was 160 mW with a slope efficiency of 11% corresponding to the absorbed pump power. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.

Construction and Operation of a Two-place Diver's Sled

Fisheries gear researchers have employed scuba diver-operated sleds to evaluate towed fishing systems since the early 1950's. One of the earliest sled designs was a converted Stokes litter in which two divers sat tandem with the forward diver operating the diving controls (Sand, 1956). The litter was relatively easy to maneuver and provided a comfortable platform for observing operational fishing gear. However, the use of underwater photographic equipment to document gear performance was difficult due to the limited mobility of the observer-cameraman.