Tetragonal calcium rare-earth aluminates, CaLnAlO4, combine a structural disorder with good thermo-mechanical properties. We report on efficient continuous-wave (CW) and passively Q-switched (PQS) ~2-μm laser operation of a 4 at.% Tm:CaYAlO4 crystal using a compact (6-mm-long) plane-parallel cavity. The pump source was a 791 nm fibercoupled AlGaAs laser diode. The CW output power reached 5.78 W at ~1970 nm with a slope efficiency of 43.6% and a linear laser polarization. Stable PQS operation was achieved using a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) based transmission-type saturable absorber. The PQS laser generated 2.15 W at ~1945 nm, a record-high average output power for this type of lasers. The best pulse characteristics (energy/duration) were 9.1 μJ/165 ns at a repetition rate of 235 kHz.
We present the absorption spectroscopy and continuous-wave laser operation of Tm:YLF at cryogenic temperatures. At 100 K, a maximum output power of 2.55 W corresponding to a maximum slope efficiency of 22.8% is obtained using 15% output coupling transmission. The output laser wavelength is centered at 1877 nm for Elc.
Similar to ytterbium doped laser materials laser operation with thulium doped media is possible within a quasi-three level scheme, which especially for pulse pumped lasers is a drawback for efficient laser operation, as a significant amount of energy is required to bleach out the laser medium. Since this energy cannot be extracted, it is lost for the amplification process. Hence, operation of such lasers at cryogenic temperatures seems to be an appropriate solution. For further modeling and derivation of design rules for future laser systems based on such a scheme reliable spectral data is needed. We will present absorption and emission measurements on Tm:YAG as a function of temperature in the range from 80 K to 300 K covering both the absorption bands around 800 nm and the emission bands up to 2.1 μm. The spectral measurements were carried out on two samples of Tm:YAG with doping levels of 2 at.% and 8 at.%. Precautions for reabsorption effects were taken to allow for accurate results over the whole measurement range. From these measurements we have derived absorption and emission cross sections and radiative lifetimes. By comparing the latter values to values obtained by highly accurate measurements of the lifetime using the pinhole method we could also estimate the quantum efficiency.
We present an efficient zero-phonon-line pumped cryogenic Yb:YAG laser passively Q-switched by Cr:YAG with different initial transmissions. At 140K, with 85% initial transmission of Cr:YAG, a maximum average output power of 5.19 W with a repetition rate of 24.7 kHz was achieved leading to a slope efficiency of 55.7%. The maximum pulse energy, minimum pulse width and peak output power obtained in this case were 0.21 mJ, 142 ns and 1.48 kW respectively.
In this work, we have shown the possibility of performing pulsed laser operation at cryogenic temperature with innovative modular compact laser cavity. Using Yb:YAG/Cr:YAG configuration, at cryogenic temperature, in the preliminary laser experiments, we obtained a maximum average output power of 2.7 W with a repetition rate of around 50 kHz. The minimum pulse width, maximum pulse energy and peak power obtained were 2.5 ns, 60 μJ. and 25 kW respectively. To the best of our knowledge, an experimental approach on compact pulsed Q-switched lasers based on Yb:YAG/Cr:YAG at cryogenic temperature is tried for the first time.
In recent years, there has been a vast development of high energy class lasers of the order of 100 J to kJ level which have potential applications in the field of science and technology. Many such systems use the gain media cooled at cryogenic temperatures which will help in enhancing the spectroscopic and thermo-optical properties. Nevertheless, parasitic effects like amplified spontaneous emission enhance and affect the overall efficiency. The best way to suppress this effect is to use cladding element attached to the gain material. Based on these facts, this work was focused on the systematic investigation of temperature dependent absorption of several materials doped with transition metals, which can be used as cladding, as laser gain material, or as passive Q-switching element. The Ti:sapphire, Cr:YAG, V:YAG, and Co:MALO samples were measured in temperature range from 80 K to 330 K by step of 50 K. Using Beer-Lambert law we estimated the absorption coefficient of these materials.
We are developing joule level picosecond pulse duration laser system operating at repetition rate of 120 Hz. The laser system consists of a seed mode-locked fiber laser and two cryogenically cooled amplifier stages: a single slab regenerative amplifier and a single slab multi-pass amplifier. We have found the displacement of the probe beam caused by mechanical vibrations of the cryostat is less than 0.7 mrad. We have also improved our in-situ gain measurement system by decreasing the spectral line of the narrow band source down to 50 pm. We have found that the emission bandwidth of Yb:YGAG at 160 K is around 7 nm.
The wavelength tunability of diode pumped laser based on Yb-doped mixed garnet Y3Ga2Al3O12 (Yb:YGAG) ceramics was investigated. The tested Yb:YGAG sample (10% Yb/Y) was in the form of 2mm thick plane-parallel face-polished plate (without AR coatings). A fiber (core diameter 100 μm, NA= 0.22) coupled laser diode (LIMO, LIMO35-F100-DL980-FG-E) with emission at wavelength 969 nm, was used for longitudinal Yb:YGAG pumping. The laser diode was operating in the pulsed regime (2 ms pulse length, 10 Hz repetition rate). The duty-cycle 2% ensured a low thermal load even under the maximum diode pumping power amplitude 20W (ceramics sample was only air-cooled). The 145mm long semi-hemispherical laser resonator consisted of a flat pumping mirror (HR @ 1.01 − 1.09 μm, HT @ 0.97 μm) and curved (r = 150mm) output coupler with a reflectivity of ∼ 97% @ 1.01 − 1.09 μm. Wavelength tuning of the ytterbium laser was accomplished by using a birefringent filter (single 1.5mm thick quartz plate) placed inside the optical resonator at the Brewster angle between the output coupler and the laser active medium. The laser was continuously tunable over ∼ 58nm (from 1022nm to 1080 nm) and the tuning band was mostly limited by the free spectral range of used birefringent filter. The maximum output power amplitude 3W was obtained at wavelength 1046nm for absorbed pump power amplitude 10.6W. The laser slope efficiency was 34%.
An overview of Czech national R&D project HiLASE (High average power pulsed LASEr) is presented. The HiLASE project aims at development of pulsed DPSSL for hi-tech industrial applications. HiLASE will be a user oriented facility with several laser systems with output parameters ranging from a few picosecond pulses with energy of 5 mJ to 0.5 J and repetition rate of 1-100 kHz (based on thin disk technology) to systems with 100 J output energy in nanosecond pulses with repetition rate of 10 Hz (based on multi-slab technology).
We are developing one joule energy and one picosecond pulse duration laser system at the repetition rate of 120 Hz
based on Yb-doped solid-state materials. The amplified output from the thin disk regenerative amplifier is amplified by
a cryogenically conduction cooled single slab amplifier. In this work, we also present a new measurement method of
a gain distribution insensitive to mode matching. One of the advantages of this method is a fact that it provides real
dimensions of the gain distribution. Knowledge about it allows one to find the optimum spatial mode matching to
maximize the output energy.
Precise values of absorption, emission and gain cross-sections of Yb:YAG, Yb:LuAG, Yb:CaF2 and Yb:FP15-glass at cryogenic temperatures are presented. To obtain the emission cross-sections two theoretical approaches were used. The first is the McCumber or reciprocity method (RM) which is based on the absorption spectra. The second is the Fuchtbauer-Ladenburg (FL) method using fluorescence spectra. From the results of cross-sections one can expect significant impact on laser performance on these materials especially in the case of high energy class diode pumped solid state lasers.
We present the design parameters of a diode-pumped 100J-class multi-slab Yb:YAG laser at 10 Hz scalable to the kJ
regime. Results of detailed energetics and thermo-optical modeling confirm the viability of cryogenic helium-gas cooling approach to drastically reduce thermally-induced distortions in the laser slabs. In addition, a comparison of spectral measurements from laser-diode stacks and Yb:YAG crystals validates the feasibility of highly efficient diode-pumped solid-state lasers at cryogenic temperatures.
Continuous-wave (CW) lasing of Ho in KRE(WO4)2 (RE=Y, Gd, Lu) crystals has been compared using in-band
pumping by a diode pumped Tm:KLu(WO4)2 laser under identical conditions at room temperature. The three monoclinic
double tungstate hosts perform similarly with the maximum output power obtained for Ho:KY(WO4)2, 406 mW with
slope efficiency of 59.9%. For Ho:KLu(WO4)2 the maximum power reached 392 mW but the slope efficiency was
slightly higher, 61.6%. Ho:KGd(WO4)2, for which the ionic radius difference between dopant and substituted ions is
maximum, generated an output power of 368 mW with slope efficiency of 53.2%.
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