Continuous-wave broadly tunable Cr2+:ZnSe laser pumped by a thulium fiber laser

Abstract We describe a compact, broadly tunable, continuous-wave (cw) Cr2+:ZnSe laser pumped by a thulium fiber laser at 1800 nm. In the experiments, a polycrystalline ZnSe sample with a chromium concentration of 9.5 × 1018 cm−3 was used. Free-running laser output was around 2500 nm. Output couplers with transmissions of 3%, 6%, and 15% were used to characterize the power performance of the laser. Best power performance was obtained with a 15% transmitting output coupler. In this case, as high as 640 mW of output power was obtained with 2.5 W of pump power at a wavelength of 2480 nm. The stimulated emission cross-section values determined from laser threshold data and emission measurements were in good agreement. Finally, broad, continuous tuning of the laser was demonstrated between 2240 and 2900 nm by using an intracavity Brewster cut MgF2 prism and a single set of optics.

[1]  E. Sorokin,et al.  Ultrabroadband infrared solid-state lasers , 2005, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[2]  A. Burger,et al.  Continuous-wave broadly tunable Cr2+:ZnSe laser. , 1999, Optics letters.

[3]  Umit Demirbas,et al.  Synthesis and characterization of diffusion-doped Cr2+:ZnSe and Fe2+:ZnSe , 2006 .

[4]  Evgeni Sorokin,et al.  Photoacoustic monitoring of gases using a novel laser source tunable around 2.5 μm , 2005 .

[5]  Kenneth L. Schepler,et al.  1.9 μm-Fiber-Pumped Cr:ZnSe Laser , 2005 .

[6]  Frank K. Tittel,et al.  Mid-Infrared Laser Applications in Spectroscopy , 2003 .

[7]  D. V. Gapontsev,et al.  Diode and fibre pumped Cr/sup 2+/:ZnS mid-infrared external cavity and microchip lasers , 2003 .

[8]  Thomas Bende,et al.  Mid-IR Laser Applications in Medicine , 2003 .

[9]  G. G. Stokes.  "J." , 1890, The New Yale Book of Quotations.

[10]  J. Nella,et al.  Characteristics of room-temperature 2.3-µm laser emission from tm3+in YAG and YAlO3 , 1975, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

[11]  V. G. Shcherbitsky,et al.  1.9- m and 2.0- m laser diode pumping of Cr(2+) :ZnSe and Cr(2+) :CdMnTe. , 2002, Optics letters.

[12]  M Kaminska,et al.  Absorption and luminescence of Cr2+(d4) in II-VI compounds , 1979 .

[13]  H. Schulz,et al.  Jahn-Teller interaction at Cr2+(d4) centres in tetrahedrally coordinated II–VI lattices studied by optical spectroscopy , 1993 .

[14]  V. I. Konstantinov,et al.  Pulsed laser operation of diffusion-doped Cr2+:ZnSe , 1999 .

[15]  K. Vodopyanov,et al.  Solid-state mid-infrared laser sources , 2003 .

[16]  Ralph H. Page,et al.  Transition metal-doped zinc chalcogenides: Spectroscopy and laser demonstration of a new class of gain media , 1996 .

[17]  Evgeni Sorokin,et al.  Tunable diode-pumped continuous-wave Cr2+:ZnSe laser , 2002 .

[18]  Clifford R. Pollock,et al.  Mode-locked Cr(2+):ZnSe laser. , 2000, Optics letters.

[19]  Maxim E. Doroshenko,et al.  ACTIVE MEDIA. LASERS: Pulsed mid-IR Cr2+:ZnS and Cr2+:ZnSe lasers pumped by Raman-shifted Q-switched neodymium lasers , 2004 .

[20]  Irina T. Sorokina,et al.  Cr2+-doped II–VI materials for lasers and nonlinear optics , 2004 .

[21]  S. Kuck,et al.  Laser-related spectroscopy of ion-doped crystals for tunable solid-state lasers , 2001 .

[22]  Mikhail P. Frolov,et al.  LASERS: Efficient lasing of a Cr2+ : ZnSe crystal grown from a vapour phase , 2003 .

[23]  I Moskalev,et al.  Multiwavelength mid-IR spatially-dispersive CW laser based on polycrystalline Cr2+:ZnSe. , 2004, Optics express.

[24]  David Jones,et al.  High power , 1994, Nature.

[25]  A. Sennaroglu,et al.  Continuous-wave power performance of a 2.47-/spl mu/m Cr/sup 2+/:ZnSe laser: experiment and modeling , 2000, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

[26]  G. Huber,et al.  Erbium Doped Fibre Amplifier Pumped Cr2+:ZnSe Laser , 2001 .

[27]  Timothy J. Carrig,et al.  High-power, rapidly-tunable dual-band CdSe optical parametric oscillator , 2005 .

[28]  V. A. Akimov,et al.  LASER SPECTROSCOPY: Spectral dynamics of intracavity absorption in a pulsed Cr2+:ZnSe laser , 2005 .

[29]  Ralph H. Page,et al.  Efficient broadly tunable continuous-wave Cr 2+ :ZnSe laser , 2001 .

[30]  S B Mirov,et al.  Erbium fiber laser-pumped continuous-wave microchip Cr(2+):ZnS and Cr(2+):ZnSe lasers. , 2002, Optics letters.

[31]  M. Mond,et al.  Efficient laser operation and continuous-wave diode pumping of Cr2+:ZnSe single crystals , 2001 .

[32]  Arnold Burger,et al.  Absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopy of diffusion-doped ZnSe:Cr2+ , 1999 .

[33]  Ralph H. Page,et al.  Cr/sup 2+/-doped zinc chalcogenides as efficient, widely tunable mid-infrared lasers , 1997 .

[34]  Andrew G. Glen,et al.  APPL , 2001 .

[35]  M. Tonelli,et al.  Development of a cw polycrystalline Cr2+: ZnSe laser , 2003 .

[36]  K. Schepler,et al.  Thermal effects in Cr/sup 2+/:ZnSe thin disk lasers , 2005, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[37]  Marek Godlewski,et al.  Optically Pumped Mid-Infrared Stimulated Emission of ZnSe:Cr Crystals , 2004 .

[38]  D. Findlay,et al.  The measurement of internal losses in 4-level lasers , 1966 .

[39]  G. A. Slack,et al.  Infrared Absorption in Some II-VI Compounds Doped with Cr , 1970 .

[40]  Irina T. Sorokina,et al.  Crystalline Mid-Infrared Lasers , 2003 .