9-13 July 2012
Africa/Johannesburg timezone
<a href="http://events.saip.org.za/internalPage.py?pageId=11&confId=14"><font color=#ff0000>SAIP2012 PROCEEDINGS AVAILABLE</font></a>

Wavelength Selected, Tm:YLF Slab Pump-Source

13 Jul 2012, 08:20
20m
Oral Presentation Track C - Photonics Photonics

Speaker

Dr Hencharl Strauss (CSIR (National Laser Centre))

Level for award<br>&nbsp;(Hons, MSc, <br> &nbsp; PhD)?

No

Apply to be<br> consider for a student <br> &nbsp; award (Yes / No)?

No

Main supervisor (name and email)<br>and his / her institution

NO

Would you like to <br> submit a short paper <br> for the Conference <br> Proceedings (Yes / No)?

Yes

Abstract content <br> &nbsp; (Max 300 words)

1.9 µm Tm:YLF slab lasers are used to pump high energy Ho:YLF slab amplifiers [1] as well as for applications in medicine and defense. We have previously demonstrated high average powers (~200 W) from such a system at ~1.9 µm. However, efficient pumping of Ho:YLF requires that the Tm:YLF output wavelength reasonably well match one of Ho:YLF’s two strong absorption peaks at either 1890 nm or 1940 nm. This is usually accomplished by polarization and output-coupler selection using threshold calculations. Volume Bragg Grating (VBG) mirrors offer a more precise and sure way to select a specific wavelength. A VBG mirror has a periodic variation of the refractive index and is transparent at most wavelengths. It has a high reflectivity at a certain wavelength which fulfills the Bragg condition (in this case 1890 nm). We used a VBG as a back-reflector in a Tm:YLF slab laser. The slab crystal was pumped with a 300 W, 792 nm diode stack using a pump reproducing scheme. It delivered over 80 W of output power at 1890 nm and had a good beam quality compared to other slab laser systems. We also report on initial results of this system pumping a 60 mm Ho:YLF crystal laser. The results indicate that the technology shows great promise for wavelength selection and stabilization of other crystal and fibre laser systems.

Primary author

Dr Hencharl Strauss (CSIR (National Laser Centre))

Co-authors

Mr Gary King (CSIR (National Laser Centre)) Mr Loyiso Maweza (CSIR (National Laser Centre)) Dr M.J. Daniel Esser (CSIR (National Laser Centre))

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