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The highest ever reported peak power generation of 7.68 kW in thermally bonded active medium Er 3+ ,Yb 3+ :glass with saturable absorber Co 2+ : MgAl 2 O 3 was achieved. The sample was a quasi-continuous wave pumped by a fiber coupled laser diode operating at 975 nm wavelength. The generation threshold was 319 mW and slope efficiency was 9.63%. A comparative analysis of the generation of different output coupler transmissions is presented.

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a b s t r a c tPulse laser generation in several Er 3+ ,Yb 3+ :glasses thermally bonded with Co 2+ :MgAl 2 O 4 was achieved. Peak power in the range of 1.83-7.68 kW with pulse duration between 2.9 and 4.2 ns and energy up to 24 lJ was obtained. The output characteristics for different transmissions of the output couplers were investigated. To show the improvements gained by the thermal bonding procedure, a comparison of thermally bonded and unbonded samples was done in terms of generation efficiency, peak power, beam quality, generated spectra and pulse to pulse jitter.

The new glass as well as Co 2? :MgAl 2 O 4 saturable absorber synthesis, especially developed for thermal bonding, was described. The procedure of thermal bonding was presented. Generation parameters of continuous wave operation at 1.5 lm wavelength were shown. The threshold below 180 mW and slop efficiency over 10 % was reached. Pulse generation in thermally bonded and unbonded as well as monolithic Er 3? , Yb 3?:-glass/Co 2? :MgAl 2 O 4 microchip lasers was compered. The peak power above 10 kW with pulse energy above 32 lJ and pulse width 3.2 ns was achieved.