Abstract

Diode lasers are attractive pump sources for 3-level rare earth doped lasers, because they provide high pump intensities with a minimum of heating of the laser material⁽¹⁾. Glass lasers are particularly interesting with respect to diode pumping, since the relatively broad pump band in glasses relaxes the need for accurate pump wavelength tuning. In this paper we study diode side pumping of Yb:Er:glass⁽²⁾ and report on efficient operation up to 10 Hz pulse rate. We observe a significant reduction in the output energy in Q-switched operation relative to free-running operation, and we study the mechanisms causing this reduction.

© 1996 IEEE