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High-power CW diode-pumped laser operation of Yb 3+ :CaF 2 crystal

2004; SPIE; Volume: 5460; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1117/12.545519

1996-756X

Mathieu Jacquemet, Andrea Lucca, Frederick Druon, François Balembois, Patrick Georges, Vincent Petit, Jean‐Louis Doualan, Patrice Camy, R. Moncorgé,

Laser Design and Applications

We present here the first CW high power laser operation obtained under diode-pumping with an Yb 3+ :CaF 2 crystal. This crystal exhibits good thermo-optical properties and can easily be grown in bulk crystals or in thin films. A maximum power of 5.8 W in a diffraction limited beam has been obtained with a 5% ytterbium-doped crystal of 4 mm-long. Moreover, the laser wavelength has been tuned over 54 nm, between 1018 and 1072 nm, and the double-pass small-signal gain has been measured to be more than 1.8, showing the great potential of Yb 3+ :CaF 2 as a gain media for ultra-short pulses operation or as amplifier.