Temperature effects on tunable CW Alexandrite lasers under diode end-pumping
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Published version
Author(s)
Kerridge-Johns, William R
Damzen, MJ
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Diode pumped Alexandrite is a promising route to high power, efficient and inexpensive lasers with a broad (701 nm to 858 nm) gain bandwidth; however, there are challenges with its complex laser dynamics. We present an analytical model applied to experimental red diode end-pumped Alexandrite lasers, which enabled a record 54 % slope efficiency with an output power of 1.2 W. A record lowest lasing wavelength (714 nm) and record tuning range (104 nm) was obtained by optimising the crystal temperature between 8 °C and 105 °C in the vibronic mode. The properties of Alexandrite and the analytical model were examined to understand and give general rules in optimising Alexandrite lasers, along with their fundamental efficiency limits. It was found that the lowest threshold laser wavelength was not necessarily the most efficient, and that higher and lower temperatures were optimal for longer and shorter laser wavelengths, respectively. The pump excited to ground state absorption ratio was measured to decrease from 0.8 to 0.7 by changing the crystal temperature from 10 °C to 90 °C.
Date Issued
2018-03-19
Date Acceptance
2018-03-08
Citation
Optics Express, 2018, 26 (6), pp.7771-7785
ISSN
1094-4087
Publisher
Optical Society of America (OSA)
Start Page
7771
End Page
7785
Journal / Book Title
Optics Express
Volume
26
Issue
6
Copyright Statement
© 2018 Optical Society of America. Published by The Optical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.
Subjects
0205 Optical Physics
1005 Communications Technologies
0906 Electrical And Electronic Engineering
Optics
Publication Status
Published