Er:YAP laser and gain-switching generation of 186 ns pulses at 2.92 µm

Abstract

Erbium-doped active medium, such as Er:YAP (Er:YAlO 3 ), allows generating of laser radiation close to 3 µm, which is interesting for many applications, e.g., medicine, spectroscopy, or for further mid-infrared conversion using OPO [1] , [2] . The Er:YAP is a biaxial crystal which can generate a naturally polarized laser radiation at 2.92 µm (laser transition 4 I 11/2 → 4 I 13/2 ) [3] . Using a compact laser resonator or microchip laser makes it possible to generate short pulses in the gain-switching regime. Generation of short pulses in this laser regime allows to use a simple laser construction without requirements on additional power sources or special crystals. In this paper, to the best author’s knowledge, the gain-switched compact Er:YAP laser was built for the first time and nanosecond pulses were successfully generated.