Continuous-wave and passively Q-switched solid-state microchip lasers in the near-infrared

Identifier:  TDX:2685

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TDX2685

Authors:  Serres Serres, Josep Maria

Abstract:
This work deals with the characterization of compact solid state lasers, as a first approach to the study of the microchip laser concept applied to several rare earth-doped crystalline hosts. The results on the study of the thermal lens, required for the microchip laser operation as well as the continuous wave and passive Q-switched laser operation in microchip configuration are reported. In the experiments, the microchip concept is defined as a quasi-monolithic laser cavity. Such a concept is studied for different laser emissions at ~1.06 μm from Yb3+ and Nd3+ ions, at ~1.3 μm from Nd3+, at ~1.95 μm from Tm3+ and at ~2.05 μm from Ho3+. The continuous wave regime is examined in detail for the above mentioned trivalent lanthanide ions embedded in several crystalline hosts with the aim to compare the potential of each gain material. Slope efficiencies very close to the theoretical limit are demonstrated in this work. On the other hand, microchip solid state lasers passively Q-switched with several saturable absorbers are also presented. For this purpose, novel nanomaterials such as MoS2, carbon nanostructures (SWCNTs, single- and multilayer graphene) and a SESA are used as saturable absorbers. Besides, the most conventional Cr:YAG (~1.06 μm) and Cr:ZnS (~1.9 μm) are examined to compare their performance.