Highly efficient Tm:YAG ceramic laser resonantly pumped at 1617 nm

Abstract

We report on a highly efficient polycrystalline Tm:YAG ceramic laser in-band pumped by an Er:YAG laser at 1617 nm. Lasing characteristics of 4.0 and 6.0 at.%Tm(3+)-doped YAG ceramics were investigated and compared. With an output coupler of 10% transmission, a maximum output power of 7.3 W was obtained at 2015 nm under 12.8 W of incident pump power, corresponding to a slope efficiency with respect to incident pump power of 62.3%.