Optical bistability effects in a Tm,Ho:YLF laser at room temperature.

We demonstrate strong optical bistability in a 2 microm continuous-wave Tm,Ho:YLF laser pumped by a 792 nm laser diode near room temperature. The bistable region is as much as 100 mW wide at 283 K and can be controlled by the temperature of the laser crystal. The influence of crystal temperature on the characteristics of optical bistability is obtained. The influence of the pump-to-mode ratio on the bistable characteristics of the laser is also discussed. To our knowledge this is the first report of optical bistability effects in Tm,Ho:YLF lasers.

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