Abstract
We present the first passively $Q$ -switched thulium microchip laser. The diode-pumped laser incorporates a Tm:KYW gain medium and an InGaAs semiconductor saturable absorber mirror. The laser emits pulses with a duration of 2.4 ns at a repetition rate of 1.2 MHz with an average output power of 130 mW at a wavelength of 1905 nm. It operates in a fundamental TEM00 mode with $M^{2} . The $Q$ -switched pulse train is very stable with pulse-to-pulse intensity fluctuations $\mu \text{m}$ fiber amplifier systems for applications like material processing. In addition, we present new power scaling results for continuous-wave Tm-microchip lasers, achieving 1.6 W of output power in a fundamental TEM00 mode. The slope efficiency relative to the absorbed pump power is as high as 74%, and the optical-to-optical efficiency is 41%. A maximum output power of 2.6 W is achieved in a TEM $_{\mathrm {01^\ast }}$ -doughnutlike transverse mode. In all the cases, no active cooling is applied to the gain medium.
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