Abstract

The broad bandwidth emission of low concentration thulium doped crystals[1] near 2.3 μm is attractive for remote sensing applications. Tm: YAG and Tm: LuAG (Lu₃A1₅O₁₂) are laser media with potential tunability from 2.25 - 2.45 μm, which can be pumped by 785 or 680 nm laser diodes and pulsed solid state lasers such as Alexandrite. In this paper we discuss pulsed operation of the 4 level Tm³⁺ ion in two different hosts. Output energies of 0.4 mJ at 4 Hz have been obtained at a slope efficiency of 12.1% and 5.2% for the YAG and LuAG hosts respectively. These results are compared with model predictions for the 4 level thulium laser operation.

© 1996 Optical Society of America