Performance of a diode end-pumped Cr,Er:YSGG laser at 2.79 μm

Abstract

We present a diode end-pumped Cr,Er:YSGG laser at 2.79 μm operated in the continuous-wave (CW) and pulsed modes. Er3+ ions are directly pumped into the upper laser state 4 I 11/2 using a 967-nm diode laser, which avoids various nonradiative losses. The laser produces 50.2 mW of power in the CW mode. An average power of 169 mW is obtained at a repetition rate of 100 Hz and a pulse duration of 2 ms. The maximum laser energy achieved is 1.95 mJ at a repetition rate of 50 Hz, corresponding to a peak power of 970 mW and a slope efficiency is 7.6%. The far-field divergence angle of the laser is measured to be 8 mrad.