Efficient laser operation of Ho:Lu2O3 at room temperature

摘要

High power lasers emitting at around 2 µm have significant potential for a variety of applications including laser surgery, welding of plastic materials, and pumping of nonlinear media to generate mid-infrared radiation in the 3 µm – 12 µm spectral range, e.g. OPOs based on ZGP. Even though ZGP can be pumped by thulium lasers at 2.0 µm its conversion efficiency at 2.1 µm is significantly higher [1]. Thus, holmium based lasers are ideally suited to pump ZGP-OPOs. The sesquioxide Lu2O3 is a very promising laser host crystal regarding power scaling because it offers several favourable properties. Sesquioxides exhibit a high thermal conductivity which is higher than the one of YAG and their low phonon energies ensure a large energy storage time while minimizing non-radiative relaxation processes [2].