construction-characterization-external-cavity-diode-lasers-for-atomic

Construction and Characterization of External Cavity Diode Lasers for Atomic Physics

Since their development in the late 1980s, cheap, reliable external cavity diode lasers (ECDLs) have replaced complex and expensive traditional dye and ...

The Australian National University

A high-power 83 W cladding-pumped Tm3+-Ho3+-doped silica fiber laser is reported. Using bidirectional 793 nm diode pumping, a maximum slope efficiency of 42% was produced after a threshold launched pump power of 12 W was exceeded. The laser operated at wavelengths near 2105 nm with moderate beam quality, i.e., M2 approximately 1.5. Further power scaling of the fiber laser was limited by thermal failure of the fiber ends.

High-power 83 W holmium-doped silica fiber laser operating with high beam quality.

We demonstrate the first gain-switched, singly doped, single-mode holmium-doped silicate glass fibre laser that operates at 2.106 microm. Using a gain-switched 1.909-microm thulium-doped fibre laser as the pump source, output pulses of energy 3.2 microJ and pulse duration of 150 ns were generated at 80 kHz and slope efficiency of 44%. Pulse stacking within the holmium-doped fibre laser resulted in significantly shorter 70 ns pulses.

Gain-switched holmium-doped fibre laser.

We present a monolithic, robustly polarised thulium fibre laser which produces pulses with 25 ns duration and energy of up to 35 µJ. A pulsed 1.55 μm source was used to gain switch the laser at repetition rates of up to 300 kHz, producing average powers of up to 8 W at 2.044 µm. To the best of our knowledge this is the highest power gain-switched thulium fibre laser and it is also the first with a linearly polarised output. The large repetition rate, pulse energy and average power will enable efficient energy extraction from a large mode-area, polarisation maintaining thulium fibre amplifier.

Efficient, polarised, gain-switched operation of a Tm-doped fibre laser.

We report the highest power operation of a resonantly cladding-pumped, holmium-doped silica fibre laser. The cladding pumped all-glass fibre utilises a fluorine doped glass layer to provide low loss cladding guidance of the 1.95 µm pump radiation. The operation of both single mode and large-mode area fibre lasers was demonstrated, with up to 140 W of output power achieved. A slope efficiency of 59% versus launched pump power was demonstrated. The free running emission was measured to be 2.12-2.15 µm demonstrating the potential of this architecture to address the long wavelength operation of silica based fibre lasers with high efficiency.

High power operation of cladding pumped holmium-doped silica fibre lasers.

We have demonstrated the highest reported output power from a mid-IR ZGP OPO. The laser is a cascaded hybrid system consisting of a thulium fibre laser, Ho:YAG solid state laser and a Zinc Germanium Phosphide parametric oscillator. The system produces 27 W of output power in the 3-5 μm wavelength range with an M(2) = 4.0 when operating in a repetitively q-switched mode, and a modulated peak output power of 99 W at a reduced duty cycle of 25%.

Article	Year
High-power 83 W holmium-doped silica fiber laser operating with high beam quality. Optics letters\| PubMed ID: 17215932	2007
Gain-switched holmium-doped fibre laser. Optics express\| PubMed ID: 19997323	2009
Efficient, polarised, gain-switched operation of a Tm-doped fibre laser. Optics express\| PubMed ID: 21934856	2011
High power operation of cladding pumped holmium-doped silica fibre lasers. Optics express\| PubMed ID: 23481989	2013
99 W mid-IR operation of a ZGP OPO at 25% duty cycle. Optics express\| PubMed ID: 23609711	2013

Shayne Bennetts

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