Single longitudinal mode and wavelength tunable Er3+-doped sesquioxide ceramic laser at ~1.6 μm

Abstract

We demonstrate single-longitudinal-mode and wavelength-tunable operation of Er:Y2O3 ceramic laser at ~1.6 μm using in-house fabricated low scattering loss ceramic sample and in-band pumped by an Er,Yb fiber laser at 1535.6 nm. Narrow linewidth and tunable laser operation has been realized using an intracavity etalon of 50 μm thickness for wavelength tuning and mode selection, yielding a wavelength tuning span of ~89 nm in the range of 1574.4 nm-1581.1 nm, 1599.4 nm-1601 nm, 1637 nm-1641.8 nm, and 1661.4 nm-1663 nm, respectively. Single-longitudinal-mode operation was confirmed using a scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer in the whole wavelength tuning range for output power of lower than ~35 mW.