Pulsed Tm-doped fiber lasers for mid-IR frequency conversion

Daniel Creeden; Peter A. Budni; Peter A. Ketteridge

doi:10.1117/12.807208

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19 February 2009 Pulsed Tm-doped fiber lasers for mid-IR frequency conversion

Daniel Creeden, Peter A. Budni, Peter A. Ketteridge

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Proceedings Volume 7195, Fiber Lasers VI: Technology, Systems, and Applications; 71950X (2009) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.807208
Event: SPIE LASE: Lasers and Applications in Science and Engineering, 2009, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

Fiber lasers are an ideal pump source for nonlinear frequency conversion because they have the capability to generate short pulses with high peak-powers and excellent beam quality. Thulium-doped silica fibers allow for pulse generation and amplification in the 2-micron spectral band. This opens the door to a variety of nonlinear crystals, such as ZnGeP₂ (ZGP) and orientation patterned GaAs (OPGaAs), which cannot be pumped by Yb- or Er-doped fiber laser directly due to high losses in the near-IR band. These crystals combine low losses with high nonlinearities and transparency for efficient nonlinear mid-IR converters. Using such nonlinear crystals and a pulsed Tm-doped master oscillator fiber amplifier (MOFA), we have demonstrated efficient mid-IR generation with watts of output power in the 3-5μm region. The Tm-doped MOFA is capable of generating from 10 to 100W of average output power at a variety of repetition rates (10kHz - >500kHz) and pulse widths (10ns - >100ns). Total mid-IR power is only limited by thermal effects in the nonlinear materials. The use of Tm-doped fiber-pumped OPOs shows the path toward compact, efficient, and lightweight mid-IR laser systems.

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Daniel Creeden, Peter A. Budni, and Peter A. Ketteridge "Pulsed Tm-doped fiber lasers for mid-IR frequency conversion", Proc. SPIE 7195, Fiber Lasers VI: Technology, Systems, and Applications, 71950X (19 February 2009); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.807208

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