All-solid-state ultrafast 2 µm laser with 1.83 W output power.

ABSTRACT

In this paper, a high-power all-solid-state ultrafast 2 µm mode-locked laser is investigated. The particularity of this laser is the simultaneous utilization of two TmYAP crystals in the same resonant cavity, independently pumped by two laser diodes. Using a 20% output coupler, pulses with output power as high as 1.83 W are achieved at a wavelength of 1938 nm with a pulse duration of 1.97 ps and a pulse repetition frequency of 100 MHz. To our knowledge, this mode-locked laser achieves the highest output power of any mode-locked TmYAP ultrafast laser reported to date. In addition, this paper provides a new approach to solve the problem of low output power due to multi-mode low-brightness laser diode pumping.