Above-room-temperature optically pumped midinfrared W lasers

Abstract

We report temperature-dependent pulsed lasing performance, internal losses, and Auger coefficients for optically pumped type-II W lasers with wavelengths in the range of 3.08–4.03 μm at room temperature. All lased to at least 360 K, and produced 1.5–5 W peak power at 300 K. Internal losses at 100 K were as low as 10 cm−1, but increased to 90–360 cm−1 at 300 K. Room temperature Auger coefficients varied from 5×10−28 cm6/s at the shortest wavelength to 3×10−27 cm6/s at the longest.