Erbium-doped all-fiber laser at 2.94 microm

We report what we believe is the first demonstration of laser emission at 2.94 microm in an erbium-doped fluoride fiber laser. The low-loss all-fiber Fabry-Perot laser cavity was formed by two fiber Bragg gratings of 90% and 15% reflectivities in a 6.6 m, 7 mol.% Er-doped double-clad fiber. A maximu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optics letters 2009-11, Vol.34 (21), p.3313-3315
Main Authors: Faucher, Dominic, Bernier, Martin, Caron, Nicolas, Vallée, Réal
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Electrodes
Erbium
Lasers, Solid-State
Time Factors
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Summary:We report what we believe is the first demonstration of laser emission at 2.94 microm in an erbium-doped fluoride fiber laser. The low-loss all-fiber Fabry-Perot laser cavity was formed by two fiber Bragg gratings of 90% and 15% reflectivities in a 6.6 m, 7 mol.% Er-doped double-clad fiber. A maximum cw output power of 5.2 W was measured, which is to our knowledge the highest reported to date for a diode-pumped laser at this wavelength. A coreless endcap was fused at the output fiber end to prevent its deterioration at high output powers. Our results, including the slope efficiency of 26.6% with respect to launched pump power, suggest that erbium could be a better alternative than holmium in the search for a replacement for the flashlamp-pumped Er:YAG at 2.94 microm.
ISSN:1539-4794
DOI:10.1364/OL.34.003313