Passive mode locking of a Tm,Ho:KY(WO_4)_2 laser around 2 μm

Microchip laser operation of Tm,Ho:KLu(WO_4)_2 crystal

“…Lagatsky et al demonstrated continuous-wave (CW) laser operation of Ho in the isostructural Tm,Ho:KYW laser crystal pumping with a Ti:Sapphire laser and achieving 460 mW of output power [4]. Later on, this work was extended to ultrashort pulse generation in picosecond [5] and femtosecond [6] regimes achieving pulses of 570 fs duration at a wavelength of 2055 nm. As KLuW is more suitable for Tm,Ho-codoping, further research focused on this host.…”

Graphene oxide absorber for 2 µm passive mode-locking Tm:YAlO3 laser

“…Compared with actively mode-locked devices, which require high-voltage switching electronics, passively mode-locked absorbers can significantly simplify the operation, reduce the cost, and improve the reliability. In recent years, semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) was used for the mode-locking of 2 μm lasers [19]. However, the fabrication of SESAM requires very complex and costly epitaxial deposition processes.…”

121 W passively mode-locked Tm:LuAG laser

“…The damage threshold of saturable absorbers is considered as one of the power limiting factors. To date, various saturable absorbers have been successfully utilized in realizing passively mode-locked Tm-doped bulk lasers, such as semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs) [1,[7][8][9][10][11], single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) [12,13] and graphene [14][15][16]. Since the SWCNT and graphene could be easily damaged under high pump level [13,14], the obtained 2 μm mode-locking laser powers by using SWCNT saturable absorbers ranged from 35 mW [12] to 240 mW [13], while the achieved output powers from graphene based mode-locked 2 μm lasers were mainly constrained around 100 mW [14][15][16].…”