Directly diode-pumped mid-infrared dysprosium fiber laser.

Abstract

We report the demonstration of a Dy3+-doped ZBLAN fiber laser directly diode-pumped at 800nm utilizing a codoping scheme with Tm3+ serving as the donor ion. In this initial demonstration, a modest output power of 12mW is generated with a slope efficiency of 0.3% at an emission wavelength of 3.23μm. Energy transfer dynamics are investigated through excited state lifetime analysis and comparison to resonant pumping of the Dy3+ upper state. The likely presence of an energy transfer upconversion process is identified, which has an undesirable effect on 3μm class lasers but may be of significant benefit for future 4μm systems.