C. H. Zhang

Diode pumped operation of tm, Ho:YAP microchip laser

Single-wave length operation of a c-cut Tm (5%), Ho (0.3%):YAP microchip laser pumped by a fiber-coup led diode-laser was reported. Under cryogenic temperature, the output power of 188 mW was obtained under the incident power of 2230 mW, corresponding to the slope efficiency was 12.2%. As much as 168 mW output and slope efficiency of 5.7% was obtained under the pump power of 3400 mW at 291 K. In addition, a maximum single-wave length output power of 60 mW at wavelength of 2130.2 nm and 14 mW at wavelength of 2102.4 nm is demonstrated under 77 and 291 K, respectively.

Room temperature single-frequency output from a diode-pumped Tm,Ho:YAP laser

Single-frequency operation in the range of 2102.45-2102.54 nm and 2130.72-2130.82 nm is demonstrated from a Tm,Ho:YAP laser at room temperature. To our knowledge, this is the first time a room temperature single-frequency Tm,Ho:YAP laser of up to 72.6 mW at 2102.5 nm with Fabry-Perot etalons has been obtained. Regulating the elevation angle of the two etalons, 42.0 mW at 2130.8 nm was obtained. The single-longitudinal-mode laser can be used as a seed laser for coherent wind measurements and differential absorption lidar systems.

Analysis of the optimum optical incident angle for an imaging acousto-optic tunable filter

The selection of the incident polar angle is very important in the entire design of the noncollinear acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF). The authors discussed how the factors, including tuning range of wavelength, the acoustic frequency, the acousto-optic figure of merit, the spectral bandwidth, the spread of filtered beam and the wavelength dependence, influence the selection of the optimum incident polar angle. By an accurate theoretical analysis, a method of selecting the optimum incident angle was presented. The analysis was significant for improving the performance of the imaging AOTF from the visible to the infrared.

Spectral resolution enhancement of acousto-optic tunable filter by double-filtering

The development of the large angular aperture noncollinear acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF) is based on the parallel tangents momentum-matching condition. In this letter, we have introduced a special double-filtering method that leads to an enhancement of the spectral resolution. And the birefringence together with the rotatory property of the interaction material has been considered to ensure the accuracy of designing an AOTF. The principle and availability of double-filtering are discussed in detail. It is confirmed that double-filtering method is effective to enhance the spectral resolution on the condition of keeping the quality of imaging, which is significant in practical applications of imaging AOTF.

Diode-end-pumped Tm, Ho:YVO4 microchip laser at room temperature

Room temperature Tm, Ho:YVO4 microchip laser operated around 2 μm was demonstrated for the first time to our knowledge. At a heat sink temperature of 283 K, a maximum output power of 47 mW was obtained by using a 0.25 mm length crystal at an absorbed pump power of 912 mW, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 9.1%. Increasing the temperature to 288 K, as much as 16.5 mW 2052.3 nm single-longitudinal-mode laser was achieved. The M2 factor was measured to be 1.4.

A comparative study on diode-pumped continuous wave Tm:Ho:YVO4 and Tm:Ho:GdVO4 lasers

In this paper, we presented experimental results concerning on the laser characteristics of two microchip lasers emitting in the 2 μm range, Tm:Ho:YVO4 microchip laser and Tm:Ho:GdVO4 microchip laser. At a heat sink temperature of 283 K, the maximum output power of Tm:Ho:YVO4 laser and Tm:Ho:GdVO4 laser is 47 and 34 mW under absorbed pump power of 912 mW, respectively. High efficiency can be achieved for both lasers at room temperature. Nevertheless, compared with Tm:Ho:GdVO4 laser, Tm:Ho:YVO4 laser can operate on single frequency with high power easily. At the heat sink temperature of 288 K, as much as 16.5 mW of 2052.3 nm single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) laser was achieved for Tm:Ho:YVO4 laser. Under the same condition, only 8 mW of 2048.5 nm SLM laser was achieved for Tm:Ho:GdVO4 laser.

LD-end-pumped 60 pm linewidth Tm:YLF laser

Narrow linewidth continuous-wave Tm:YLF laser at room temperature with a Volume Bragg grating and double Fabry-Perot etalons by using the end-pumping configuration was presented. The Tm:YLF laser operates at 1907.3 nm with FWHM of approximately 60 pm. We achieved the maximum output power of 1.92 W when the incident pump power of 13.9 W, corresponding to the optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 13.8% and slope efficiency of 16.4%.

Room temperature diode-pumped Tm,Ho:YAP laser with double etalons

A diode end-pumped single-frequency Tm,Ho:YAP laser at room temperature was reported. We obtain a single frequency Tm,Ho:YAP laser of up to 31 mW with Fabry-Perot etalons in the cavity at 2130.8 nm. The optical conversion efficiency is 1.0% and the slope efficiency is 6.3%. The measured full width at half maximum (FWHM) is approximately 65 pm. The single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) laser can be used as a seed laser for coherent wind measurements and differential absorption LIDAR systems.

Development of double-filtering imaging acousto-optic tunable filter with increased spectral resolution

The spectral resolution is a key index of evaluating the performance of the designed acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF). We present a special double-filtering method of obviously enhancing the spectral resolution. We have discussed the main technique functional in the double-filtering method in detail. It is confirmed that the double-filtering method can effectively enhance the spectral resolution with good imaging quality. This study is significant in the imaging applications of AOTF.

Efficient Cr:ZnSe laser with a volume Bragg grating

An efficient and narrow linewidth Cr:ZnSe laser pumped by Tm,Ho:GdVO4 laser with a volume Bragg grating (VBG) is reported. The Cr:ZnSe laser operated at 2580 nm with emitting linewidth (FWHM) about 0.8 nm. Using the volume Bragg grating, 3.57 W of output was achieved under total incident pump power of 13.1 W, corresponding to optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 27.3%. By use of conventional mirror, 4.11 W of output was achieved the same incident pump power and the optical-to-optical conversion efficiency is 31.4%.