Letter Vol. 43, No.

6 / 15 March 2018 / Optics Letters 1271

2.1 μm composite Tm/Ho:YAG laser

HAIZHOU HUANG,1,2 JIANHONG HUANG,1 YAN GE,1 HUI ZHENG,1 WEN WENG,1 HONGCHUN WU,1 AND
WENXIONG LIN1,*
1
Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials Chemistry and Physics, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter,
Chinese Academy of Science, Fuzhou, 350002, China
2
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
*Corresponding author: [email protected]

Received 26 January 2018; revised 11 February 2018; accepted 12 February 2018; posted 13 February 2018 (Doc. ID 320740);
published 8 March 2018

We realize Ho laser operation in a composite Tm/Ho:YAG or 1.9 μm LDs [12,13]. High-power Tm lasers with excellent
gain medium for the first time, to the best of our knowl- beam quality, especially the Tm-doped fiber lasers, are good for
edge, which was integrated via diffusion bonding the mode-matching the Ho laser to obtain highly efficient opera-
Tm-doped and Ho-doped crystals into a single bulk struc- tion. However, such a cascade pumping scheme is bulky and
ture. A maximum output power around 6 W was obtained has poorer overall efficiencies compared with using the 1.9 μm
with a slope efficiency of 40.1% and conversion efficiency LD [13]. Among 1.9 μm LD pumped Ho lasers, the highest
(CE) of 33.6% from the absorbed 785 nm laser diode to conversion efficiency (CE) of 40.1% from an absorbed LD to
2122 nm Ho laser, which is comparable with CE in 2.06 μm Ho laser was demonstrated at a maximum output
1.9 μm LD pumped Ho lasers. Such a scheme is demon- power of 1.63 W [14]. However, the costly LD bars and
strated to be another valid way for Ho laser generation here, dynamic drift in the broad LD spectrum with the increased
which is of significance to be adopted in other host media driving current and operation temperature [15] should be
or waveguide structures for an assessable, compact, and considered when amplifying the Ho laser further. Settling
efficient Ho laser. © 2018 Optical Society of America the Ho-doped gain medium into a Tm laser cavity with the
OCIS codes: (140.3070) Infrared and far-infrared lasers; (140.3480) side faces of the gain medium exposed under the intra-cavity
Lasers, diode-pumped; (140.5680) Rare earth and transition metal
Tm laser, an intra-cavity side-pumped Ho laser was realized
[16], which could be more compact when merging the Tm la-
solid-state lasers.
ser and Ho laser cavities. Inserting a Tm-doped gain medium
https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.43.001271 into the Ho laser cavity for intra-cavity pumping is a promising
way that directly uses 800 nm LDs. Hence, a variety of intra-
cavity pumped Ho lasers realized by separating Tm and
Holmium lasers are valuable in a variety of scientific and tech- Ho ions in independent gain media were explored [17–21],
nical applications such as wind lidar [1], remote sensing [2], and where few lasers could achieve high powers [18,20]. With in-
surgeries [3] due to their lasing wavelengths of around 2.05– cident LD over 100 W, 8 W Ho:YAP laser intra-cavity pumped
2.2 μm being within the atmosphere widow and the molecular by Tm:YLF was obtained with a slope efficiency (SE) of 10.9%
fingerprint region, where characterized vibrational absorption and beam quality factor M 2 of around 2.2 [20]. In Tm:YAG
bands of most molecules are displayed [4]. As the longer wave- intra-cavity pumped Ho:YAG lasers, the SE of 17.5% and M 2
lengths above 2.1 μm are farther away from the cutoff sides of 6 were obtained with a maximum output power of 7.2 W
of the famous mid-infrared crystal orientation-patterned due to the severe thermal effects in both the Tm-doped and
GaAs and ZnGeP2 [5], lasers from Ho-doped YAG or its Ho-doped crystals [18]. By confining the wavelength and
isomorphic gain media are also excellent pump sources for non- bandwidth of the LD strictly within an optimal pump peak
linear optical generation of mid-infrared lasers [6]. of Tm:YAG, a maximum output power of 8 W with M 2 of
As the Ho3
ion has no absorption band around 800 nm to 2.7 was obtained in our previous work [22], where the SE
utilize the developed AlGaAs laser diodes (LDs), it was tradi- and CE were 38% and 32%, respectively. The intra-cavity
tionally sensitized by the co-doped Tm3
ion in a gain medium pumped scheme requires gain media to be separately mounted
to realize Ho laser operation [7], which was limited by the on heat sinks for water cooling, and a strict collimation between
severe cooperative up-conversion losses between Tm3
and the Tm-doped and Ho-doped media is needed for intra-cavity
Ho3
ions at room temperature [8]. Hence, resonantly pump- resonance.
ing single Ho-doped gain media at their absorption bands In this Letter, we realize Ho laser operation in a single
around 1.9 μm has received attention by researchers during composite gain medium Tm/Ho:YAG for the first time, to
the past two decades, where the pump sources could be a tran- the best of our knowledge, which was obtained by integrating
sition metal laser [9], Tm-doped bulk, or fiber lasers [10,11], together the Tm-doped and Ho-doped crystals via diffusion

0146-9592/18/061271-04 Journal © 2018 Optical Society of America

 1272 Vol. 43, No. 6 / 15 March 2018 / Optics Letters Letter

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the composite Tm/Ho:YAG laser (FS,

focus system; DM, 45° dichroic mirror).

bonding. Such a scheme facilitates the use of accessible AlGaAs

LDs in a compact structure with an easier manner versus the
intra-cavity pumped lasers.
The experimental setup is depicted in Fig. 1. A fiber-
coupled LD (Dilas, NA: 0.22, core: 400 μm) was used as the
pump source, which was wavelength-locked at 784.9 nm with a
bandwidth of 0.1 nm by volume Bragg gratings. The focus sys-
tem has two identical plano–convex lenses with a focus length
of 40 mm to reimage a pump waist radius around 200 μm
inside the gain medium. The composite Tm/Ho:YAG crystal
has a dimension of 3 mm × 3 mm × 14 mm, which was inte-
grated by a 8 mm long 3.5 at. % Tm:YAG and a 6 mm long
0.6 at. % Ho:YAG via diffusion bonding, as shown in the inset
of Fig. 1. The gain medium was anti-reflection (AR) coated at Fig. 2. (a) Output power curves of the Tm/Ho:YAG laser with dif-
785 nm and from 1.9 to 2.2 μm on both ends and wrapped ferent OCs. (b) Lasing spectra at different output powers by using the
with indium foil before being mounted into a copper heat sink 10% coupler, where the insets are partial views around 2.1. μm, and no
for water cooling at 15°C. M1 was a plano–plano front mirror Tm laser signal was observed.
high-reflection (HR) coated from 1.9 to 2.2 μm and AR at
785 nm. M2 denoted the plano–concave output couplers
(OC) with a radius of curve of 0.2 m, where the 10% OC transmittance loss. As transmittances in the 2% and 3%
had a reflection of 90% at 2.09–2.2 μm and HR at 1.9– OCs are the same for both the Tm and Ho lasers, dual-
2.02 μm; the 5% and 2% OCs had reflections of 95% and wavelength operations were observed during the power scaling
98%, respectively, at 1.9–2.2 μm. A dichroic 45° mirror was processes with these OCs, as shown in Figs. 3(a) and 3(b). Near
utilized to filter the 785 nm pump light from Tm and Ho la- the lasing thresholds, single Tm laser operations were observed
sers. The laser power was measured by a power meter (OPHIR, in both the 2% and 5% OCs, and amplitudes of the Tm laser
30(150)A-LP1-18), and the wavelength was measured by a spectra gradually faded and were lost in the noise with the
spectrum analyzer (BRISTOL, 771A-IR) with a spectral reso- increased pump power, where only peaks around 2.1 μm were
lution of 4 GHz. observed at high output powers.
Figure 2(a) shows the output power curves with different Defining P Tm and P Ho as intensities at the peak wavelengths
OCs considering the absorbed pump power, where each curve of Tm and Ho lasers, respectively, the evolutions in P Tm ∕P Ho
was linear fitted to be with an SE of 40.1%, 29.4%, and 20.8% are depicted in Fig. 3(c), which could approximate the output
at OC of 10%, 2%, and 5%, respectively. Laser thresholds for power ration between Tm and Ho lasers. As shown in Fig. 3(c),
different OCs were approximately the same at an absorbed the dual-wavelength range in 2% OC is shorter than that in 5%
pump power around 2.5 W. As the 10% OC was HR coated OC with a more dramatic evolution in P Tm ∕P Ho . A growing
at 2 μm, a Tm laser was a well-confined intra-cavity for resonance absorption loss intra-cavity with increasing Ho laser
resonance pumping because no Tm laser signal was observed, power suppresses the oscillations of the Tm laser with OCs of
as shown in Fig. 2(b), where the laser wavelength was 2% and 5%. With lower transmittance in OC, a higher portion
monitored during the power scaling process and stabilizing of Tm photonics was confined and consumed for Ho laser op-
within 2122.2 nm  0.2 nm. A maximum output power of eration, which intensified evolution in P Tm ∕P Ho and shortened
5.98 W at 2122.3 nm with a linewidth of 0.15 nm was the dual-wavelength range.
obtained at a maximum absorbed pump power of 17.8 W cor- The beam qualities of the Tm/Ho:YAG laser with different
responding to a CE of 33.6%. OCs were meausred by a beam analyzer (NanoModeScan,
With the 2% OC, a maximum power of 4.22 W at Ophir) at each maxiumum output power. As shown in
2129.5 nm (linewidth 0.1 nm) was obtained with a CE of Fig. 4(a), beam quality factors M 2 were 1.89, 1.52, and 1.46
23.7%, which is higher than the power of 3.19 W at for OCs of 10%, 2%, and 5%, respectively. The power stability
2122.1 nm (linewidth 0.12 nm) obtained using the 5% OC at the maximum output power around 6 W was monitored in
due to the higher fraction of confined Tm laser and lower 1 h and demonstrated a relative root-mean-square fluctuation
 Letter Vol. 43, No. 6 / 15 March 2018 / Optics Letters 1273

Fig. 4. (a) Beam qualities at the maximum output powers of the

Tm/Ho:YAG laser with OCs of 2%, 5%, and 10%, respectively.
(b) Power stability of the maximum output power when using the
10% OC with corresponding 2D and 3D beam profiles inserted.

dual-wavelength operation with both the Tm laser and Ho laser

Fig. 3. (a), (b) Dual-wavelength spectra at different output powers was observed. Such a scheme could be adopted in other host
when using the 2% and 5% OCs, where corresponding Ho lasers media or waveguide structures for an assessable Ho laser facili-
are within 2129.5  0.1 and 2122.3  0.2 nm, respectively. tating researches such as biology, spectroscopy, surgeries, and
(c) Evolutions in P Tm ∕P Ho and Tm laser wavelengths, where P Tm novel lasers.
and P Ho are peak intensities of the Tm and Ho laser spectra. The
red crosses denote the end or start powers at which single wavelength Funding. National Key Research and Development
operations were observed. Program of China (2017YFB1104500).

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