Resonantly diode-pumped eyesafe Er:YAG lasers (Invited Paper)

We have demonstrated efficient operation of the eyesafe laser transition (4I13/2 -> 4I15/2) in Er:YAG by resonantly pumping with 1470nm diodes. Quasi-cw powers in excess of 30W have been achieved at 10% duty cycle with 47% slope efficiency, 26% conversion efficiency, and beam quality of M2=1.4 x 2.2. In energy storage mode, we have generated near-diffraction-limited 41mJ / 58ns pulses, more than 700kW of peak power, at 10Hz. Storage lifetimes in the range of 5 to 7msec have been measured, and pulses as short as 25ns have been obtained at reduced energy. We believe this to be the first-ever demonstration of a resonantly diode pumped (bulk) erbium laser.