In-band pumped Kerr-lens mode-locked Tm,Ho-codoped calcium aluminate laser

Identifier:  imarina:9369663

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/imarina9369663

Authors:  Zeng, HJ; Xue, WZ; Murray, RT; Cui, C; Wang, L; Pan, ZB; Loiko, P; Mateos, X; Yuan, FF; Zhang, G; Griebner, U; Petrov, V; Chen, WD

Abstract:
We report on a Kerr-lens mode-locked Tm,Ho-codoped calcium aluminate laser with in-band pumping of the Tm ions by a spatially single-mode 1678 nm Raman fiber laser. The structurally disordered CaGdAlO4 host crystal is also codoped also with the passive Lu ion for additional inhomogeneous line broadening. The Tm,Ho,Lu:CaGdAlO4 laser generates soliton pulses as short as 79 fs at a central wavelength of 2073.6 nm via soft-aperture Kerr-lens mode-locking. The corresponding average output power amounts to 91 mW at a pulse repetition rate of -86 MHz. The average output power can be scaled to 842 mW at the expense of slightly longer pulses of 155 fs at 2045.9 nm, which corresponds to a peak power of -58 kW. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the first demonstration of an in-band pumped Kerr-lens mode-locked Tm,Ho solid-state laser at -2 mu m.