Diode-pumped laser performance of Tm:Sc ₂ SiO ₅ crystal at 1971 nm

Abstract

The 4-at.% Tm:Sc 2 SiO 5 (Tm:SSO) crystal is successfully obtained by the Czochralski method. The optical properties and thermal conductivity of the crystal are investigated. The broad continuous wave (CW) laser output of (100)-cut Tm:SSO with the dimensions of 3 mm×3 mm×3 mm under laser diode (LD)-pumping is realized. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the laser emitting reaches up to 21 nm. The laser threshold of Tm:SSO is measured to be 0.43 W. Efficient diode-pumped CW laser performance of Tm:SSO is demonstrated with a slope efficiency of 25.9% and maximum output power of 934 mW.

Electro-optically cavity-dumped Ho:SSO laser with a pulse width of 3.6 ns and linewidth of 70 pm

“…Scandium silicate (Sc 2 SiO 5 , SSO) crystal is a promising laser host for the doping of rare earth ions. It has high thermal conductivity (7.5 W m −1 • K −1 ) and negative refractive coefficient dn/dT (−6.3 × 10 −6 K −1 ) [12], which is very beneficial as it reduces the thermal effects of crystal. To date, the CW and Q-switched performance of the Ho:SSO laser pumped at 1.94 µm has been reported [13][14][15].…”