Abstract

When the 2.8 µm erbium laser is pumped well above threshold an instability is observed at a unique pumping wavelength which causes the laser inversion to be produced by interactions among neighboring impurity ions. We show experimentally that this instability does not occur at equivalent levels over threshold when excitation is provided at wavelengths other than 1.5 µm. This behavior is compared with the results of two theoretical approaches to a description of the nonlinear dynamics, namely a rate equation and a density matrix solution. It is shown theoretically that instabilities may originate from two different physical mechanisms in pair-pumped laser systems, both of which are related to the nonlinear upconversion terms. Oscillatory solutions for the laser output may arise either from interplay of the nonlinear upconversion response with cavity photon density or from delocalization of the pair interaction. Details of these predictions are compared with time series of the laser output to shed light on the true origin of the observed instabilities. A possible explanation of excess amplitude noise in conventional infrared Erbium lasers is offered.

© 1993 Optical Society of America