Demonstration of a 0.8 W continuous wave bulk laser around 2 μm in a Tm3+:Ga-rich BGG glass

Abstract

Efficient lasing of Ga-rich BGG bulk glasses doped with Tm3+ is demonstrated. Two BGG bulk samples with Tm3+ ion concentrations of 1.27×1020 cm−3 and 2.54×1020 cm−3 were tested for their laser performance. In-band pumping was realized using a continuous-wave (CW) homemade Er-doped fiber laser at 1600 nm. A maximum slope efficiency of 27.7% was demonstrated with respect to the absorbed pump power. The emission cross-section was retrieved from the laser efficiency data for three different lasing wavelengths and compared with the theoretical calculations. The power scaling potential of the Tm3+:BGG glass was investigated and a maximum output power of 0.8 W was achieved.