High-Power Continuous-Wave and Acousto-Optical Q-Switched Ho:(Sc_(0.5)Y_(0.5))_2SiO_5 Laser Pumped by Laser Diode

We experimentally investigate the continuous-wave(cw)and acousto-optical(AO)Q-switched performance of a diode-pumped Ho:(Sc_(0.5)Y_(0.5))_2SiO_5(Ho:SYSO)laser.A fiber-coupled laser diode at 1.91m is employed as the pump source.The cw Ho:SYSO laser produces 13.0 W output power at 2097.9 nm and 56.0%slope efficiency with respect to the absorbed pump power.In the AO Q-switched regime,at a pulse repetition frequency of 5 kHz,the Ho:SYSO laser yields 2.1 mJ pulse energy and 21 ns pulse width,resulting in a calculated peak power of 100 k W.In addition,at the maximum output level,the beam quality factor of the Q-switched Ho:SYSO laser is measured to be about 1.6.

575-fs passively mode-locked Yb:CaF2 ceramic laser

A Yb-doped CaF2 transparent ceramics was successfully fabricated by the hot-pressed method and its laser characteristics were studied.A broad tuning performance and mode-locked laser operation were demonstrated in this ceramics for the first time,to our best knowledge.A 60-nm continuous-wavelength tunable laser from 1019 nm to 1079 nm was obtained with a birefringent filter.By employing a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror without additional dispersion compensation elements,a continuous-wave mode-locked laser with pulse duration as short as 575 fs was delivered,at a central wavelength of 1048.5 nm.The oscillator is operated under a repetition rate of 55 MHz.These results indicate that the Yb:CaF2 transparent ceramics is an ideal candidate for the development of ultrafast lasers in the near-infrared regime.

Yb:CaF_(2)-YF_(3)transparent ceramics ultrafast laser at dual gain lines

Yb^(3+):CaF_(2)–YF_(3)transparent ceramics with excellent optical quality was successfully fabricated by hot-pressed method.Pulsed laser properties of this ceramics were investigated for the first time.Laser diode(LD)was applied as the pump source to generate a dual-wavelength mode-locked(ML)laser.The maximum average output power was 310 mW,which represents the highest output power of ultrafast calcium fluoride ceramic laser.The spectrum separated at 1048.9 nm and 1049.7 nm with a total pulse duration of 8.9 ps.The interval period between the beating signals was about 4.3 ps,corresponding to a 0.23 THz beat pulse repetition rate.These results demonstrate its potential in producing dual-wavelength ultrashort pulses.These Yb^(3+):CaF_(2)–YF_(3)ceramics with low-cost and short-preparation period are ideal candidate materials for ultrafast lasers.

Tunable Nd,La:SrF2 laser and passively Q-switched operation based on gold nanobipyramids saturable absorber

A novel Nd, La：SrF_2 disordered crystal is prepared, and its continuous-wave wavelength tuning operation is performed for the first time. Employing a surface plasmon resonance（SPR） based gold nanobipyramids（G-NBPs） saturable absorber,we obtain a compact diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd, La：SrF_2 laser. The stable Q-switched pulse operates with the shortest pulse duration of 1.15 μs and the maximum repetition rate of 41 k Hz. The corresponding single pulse energy is 2.24 μJ. The results indicate that G-NBPs could be a promising saturable absorber applied to the diode-pumped solid state lasers（DPSSLs）.