Efficient Continuous Wave and Acousto-Optical Q-switched Tm:Lu2O3 Laser Pumped by the Laser Diode at 1.7 Μm

A resonantly-pumped continuous wave and acousto-optical (AO) Q-switched Tm:Lu2O3 laser was demonstrated in this paper. In the continuous-wave regime, with absorbed pump power of 15.4 W, the Tm:Lu2O3 laser delivered a maximum output power of 6.1 W and a slope efficiency of 66.4% with respect to the absorbed pump power. With a pulse repetition frequency of 10 kHz, the AO Q-switched Tm:Lu2O3 laser produced maximum average output power of 3.87 W. At the pulse repetition frequency of 5 kHz, the AO Q-switched Tm:Lu2O3 laser reached the maximum pulse energy of 0.74 mJ and the minimum pulse width of 46 ns, resulting in a peak power of 16.1 kW.