Abstract
This paper studies synchronous Q-switch and mode-locking of an 2.7 μm Er:Y2O3 ceramic laser pumped with a high brightness 976 nm fiber laser and using a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror. The Er:Y2O3 ceramic is home-developed with Er3+ doping concentration of 7 at.%. The laser generated ~92 mW of average output power with stable mode-locked pulses of 100% modulation depth and 130 MHz repetition rate embedded inside Q-switched envelopes of ~1.2 μs width. Repetition rates of the Q-switched pulse envelopes are tunable from 5.1 kHz to 29 kHz with the width varying from 2.7 μs to 1.2 μs.
Highlights
IntroductionLaser sources operating around 3 μm have been widely studied for using in spectroscopy, differential absorption lidar, remote sensing, and laser surgery because their wavelength coincides with the strong absorption spectral region of the water, vapor and biological tissues [1]
In recent years, laser sources operating around 3 μm have been widely studied for using in spectroscopy, differential absorption lidar, remote sensing, and laser surgery because their wavelength coincides with the strong absorption spectral region of the water, vapor and biological tissues [1].Optical parametric oscillation, stimulated raman scattering, and semiconductor technology can be used to access the mentioned laser radiations [2,3]
Where Ep represents the intra-cavity pulse energy, Esat,g represents the saturable energy of the gain medium, Esat,a represents the saturable energy of the saturable absorber, and ∆R represents the modulation depth of the saturable absorber, respectively
Summary
Laser sources operating around 3 μm have been widely studied for using in spectroscopy, differential absorption lidar, remote sensing, and laser surgery because their wavelength coincides with the strong absorption spectral region of the water, vapor and biological tissues [1]. The recently developed Er:Y2 O3 ceramics with a relatively lower concentration for efficient 3-μm laser operation have gained considerable attention because of their lower phonon energy, larger cation density, and higher thermal conductivity. Recent studies have shown that the Er:Y2 O3 ceramic is a promising laser gain medium for high power 3-μm continuous-wave (CW) and nanosecond pulsed operations [7,8,9]. In the wavelength region of 3-μm, Er3+ doped thermally advanced sesquioxides should be an alternative option for short pulses laser generation with high power and repetition rate. Repetition rates of the Q-switched pulse envelope are tunable from 5.1 kHz to 29 kHz with the width varying from 2.7 μs to 1.2 μs via varying the incident pump power This is the first report, to the best of our knowledge, on mode locked operation of Er3+ -doped sesquioxide at 2.7 μm
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