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High power Er:YAG laser at 1646nm pumped by an Er/Yb fibre laser

High power Er:YAG laser at 1646nm pumped by an Er/Yb fibre laser
High power Er:YAG laser at 1646nm pumped by an Er/Yb fibre laser
Solid-state lasers operating in the eye-safe wavelength regime around ~1.5-2.1 µm regime have numerous applications. For many applications, the requirement for high power is accompanied by the need for high efficiency and good beam quality, which are difficult to achieve in conventional solid- state lasers because of thermal effects. Fibre lasers are less affected by thermal effects, but pulse energies are limited by amplified spontaneous emission and by damage to the fibre end facets. An alternative approach which circumvents this problem is to use a hybrid laser where a fibre laser is used to 'in-band' pump a bulk solid-state laser. In this paper we describe an Er:YAG laser pumped by a tunable, cladding-pumped Er/Yb fibre laser and discuss factors affecting the laser performance. Five crystals with Er-concentrations in the range 0.25% to 4 at% and with crystal lengths selected for ~95% absorption of the pump light at 1532nm were used, and the laser performance was investigated for a range of output coupler transmissions (2-30%) at 1646nm. In preliminary experiments we have achieved a maximum output power of 4W at 1646nm for 11W of absorbed pump power corresponding to an efficiency of 36%, using a crystal with 0.5 at% Er-concentration and an output coupler transmission of 10%. Our experiments have revealed that the cw efficiency decreases quite markedly for higher Er-concentrations. The origin this behaviour is the subject of further investigation and our findings will be presented. The prospects for further increase in output power and efficiency will also be discussed.
Jander, P.
f1ce5878-a2c0-4f48-8521-cc851cfc4125
Sahu, J.K.
009f5fb3-6555-411a-9a0c-9a1b5a29ceb2
Clarkson, W.A.
3b060f63-a303-4fa5-ad50-95f166df1ba2
Jander, P.
f1ce5878-a2c0-4f48-8521-cc851cfc4125
Sahu, J.K.
009f5fb3-6555-411a-9a0c-9a1b5a29ceb2
Clarkson, W.A.
3b060f63-a303-4fa5-ad50-95f166df1ba2

Jander, P., Sahu, J.K. and Clarkson, W.A. (2004) High power Er:YAG laser at 1646nm pumped by an Er/Yb fibre laser. SPIE European Symposium on Optics and Photonics for Defence & Security, , London, United Kingdom. 25 - 28 Oct 2004.

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Solid-state lasers operating in the eye-safe wavelength regime around ~1.5-2.1 µm regime have numerous applications. For many applications, the requirement for high power is accompanied by the need for high efficiency and good beam quality, which are difficult to achieve in conventional solid- state lasers because of thermal effects. Fibre lasers are less affected by thermal effects, but pulse energies are limited by amplified spontaneous emission and by damage to the fibre end facets. An alternative approach which circumvents this problem is to use a hybrid laser where a fibre laser is used to 'in-band' pump a bulk solid-state laser. In this paper we describe an Er:YAG laser pumped by a tunable, cladding-pumped Er/Yb fibre laser and discuss factors affecting the laser performance. Five crystals with Er-concentrations in the range 0.25% to 4 at% and with crystal lengths selected for ~95% absorption of the pump light at 1532nm were used, and the laser performance was investigated for a range of output coupler transmissions (2-30%) at 1646nm. In preliminary experiments we have achieved a maximum output power of 4W at 1646nm for 11W of absorbed pump power corresponding to an efficiency of 36%, using a crystal with 0.5 at% Er-concentration and an output coupler transmission of 10%. Our experiments have revealed that the cw efficiency decreases quite markedly for higher Er-concentrations. The origin this behaviour is the subject of further investigation and our findings will be presented. The prospects for further increase in output power and efficiency will also be discussed.

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Published date: October 2004
Venue - Dates: SPIE European Symposium on Optics and Photonics for Defence & Security, , London, United Kingdom, 2004-10-25 - 2004-10-28

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 41715
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/41715
PURE UUID: 09afa5f3-2012-4aa4-acc7-a32d85126a74
ORCID for J.K. Sahu: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-3560-6152

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 16 Oct 2006
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:20

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Contributors

Author: P. Jander
Author: J.K. Sahu ORCID iD
Author: W.A. Clarkson

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