Tunable repetition frequency passively Q-switched Tm,Ho:YLF laser with Cr:ZnS as a saturable absorber

Generation of 40 ns laser pulses by a diode-pumped passively Q-switched Tm,Ho:YLF laser

“…Fluorides exhibit the lowest phonon energies and the longest fluorescence lifetime (~10 ms for the 2 µm Tm-and Ho-laser transitions), which plays the role of energy storage time in Q-switching. Few reports exist on PQS Tm,Ho-co-doped lasers, including the hosts YLF [5][6][7], LLF [8,9], and GdVO 4 [10]. Again, in all cases, Cr:ZnS SAs were used.…”

“…The situation is quite unsatisfactory and difficult to explain because (i) the purpose of Q-switching is to reach peak powers much higher than in a CW regime, (ii) such pulse durations are much longer than previously reported with active Q-switching of Tm,Ho:YLF [11], and (iii) from theoretical considerations and experiments on active Q-switching, Ho-lasers are considered to have much higher potential in this temporal regime than Tm-lasers [1]. Moreover, since excellent results in terms of output energy, pulse duration, and peak power have been obtained with in-band pumping of PQS Ho:YAG lasers by a Tm-fiber [12] and by a Tm:YLF laser [13] as well as for singlefrequency operation of a Tm-fiber laser pumped PQS Ho:YLF laser [14], the question arises of whether the poor performance reported in [5][6][7][8][9][10] is not related to the complex dynamics in the Tm,Ho-co-doped laser system at high inversion rates.…”

Crystal growth, spectroscopic characterization and laser operation of Tm3+ and Ho3+ codoped LiLuF4 crystal

“…These lasers can be tuned from below 2 μm arising out of the Tm 3+ lev els to beyond 2.1 μm corresponding to the pure Ho 3+ emission. Therefore, diode pumping of Tm 3+ , Ho 3+ codoped laser materials has attracted considerable interest [1,3,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19].…”

Compact passively Q-switched diode-pumped Tm:KY(WO4)2 laser with 8 ns/30/LJ pulses

“…Different kinds of SAs for these lasers were reported. Crystalline Cr:ZnS SA was used in diode-pumped solid-state Tm:KY(WO 4 ) 2 [13] and Tm,Ho:LiYF 4 [28,29] lasers, which emitted pulses with duration of 30 ns and ∼ 1 µs at the wavelength of 1.93 µm and 2.05 µs, respectively, with the corresponding pulse energies of 2 and 4 µJ. The use of Cr:ZnSe SA in the Tm:KY(WO 4 ) 2 laser allowed generation of pulses with energy of 4 µJ and duration of 57 ns [13].…”