We report on the high-power operation of an Er:Y2O3 ceramic laser at approximately 1.6 µm using a low-scattering-loss, 0.25 at. % Er3+-doped ceramic sample fabricated in-house via a co-precipitation process. The laser is in-band pumped by an Er, Yb fiber laser at 1535.6 nm and generates 10.2 W of continuous-wave (CW) output power at 1640.4 nm with a slope efficiency of 25% with respect to the absorbed pump power. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of an approximately 1.6 µm Er:Y2O3 laser at room temperature. The prospects for further scaling of the output power and lasing efficiency via low Er3+ doping and reduced energy-transfer upconversion are discussed.

We report on gain-and Q-switched operation of Er:Y2O3 ceramic laser at 1640 nm using in-house fabricated lowscattering-loss, 0.25-at.% Er 3+ -doped ceramic sample. Stable gain-switched operation in pulse repetition frequencies (PRFs) of 5-50 kHz has been demonstrated using an acousto-optic modulator switched 1535 nm fiber pump source, resulting in a peak power of 16 times higher than that for CW operation. Q-switched operation in 0.5-10 kHz repetition rate has been demonstrated with AO switcher, generating stable pulses of 94 ns duration and 0.5 mJ energy at 0.5 kHz for 5.7 W of absorbed pump power, corresponding to a peak power of 5.2 kW.

We report on power scaling and efficient operation of a Ho:Y2O3 ceramic laser at 2.1 µm in-band pumped with an incoherently beam combined high power and narrow-linewidth Tm fiber source at 1931.2 nm. The 0.5 at.% Ho3+ doped Ho:Y2O3 ceramic is fabricated in-house with scattering loss of < 0.25% cm−1. Up to 210.5 W of continuous-wave output power has been generated at 2117 nm for 366 W absorbed pump power shaped with a one-dimensional top-hat profile, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 60.0% with respect to the absorbed pump power. A slope efficiency of 67.5% has been demonstrated with 160 W of output power using a circular beam pump configuration. Results presented in this work verify the superior power scaling capability of a Ho:Y2O3 ceramic laser with high efficiency at ∼2.1 µm.

We demonstrate single-longitudinal-mode and wavelength-tunable operation of Er:Y2O3 ceramic laser at ~1.6 μm using in-house fabricated low scattering loss ceramic sample and in-band pumped by an Er,Yb fiber laser at 1535.6 nm. Narrow linewidth and tunable laser operation has been realized using an intracavity etalon of 50 μm thickness for wavelength tuning and mode selection, yielding a wavelength tuning span of ~89 nm in the range of 1574.4 nm-1581.1 nm, 1599.4 nm-1601 nm, 1637 nm-1641.8 nm, and 1661.4 nm-1663 nm, respectively. Single-longitudinal-mode operation was confirmed using a scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer in the whole wavelength tuning range for output power of lower than ~35 mW.

We report on room temperature operation of an Er:Y2O3 ceramic laser at 1640.4 nm for the first time, generating over 5.2 W of output power with a slope efficiency of 24.9%.