High-power 1640 nm Er:Y2O3 ceramic laser at room temperature

We report on the high-power operation of an Er:Y2O3 ceramic laser at approximately 1.6 mu m using a low-scattering-loss, 0.25 at.% Er3+-doped ceramic sample fabricated in-house via a co-precipitation process. The laser is in-band pumped by an Er, Yb fiber laser at 1535.6 nm and generates 10.2 W of continuous-wave (CW) output power at 1640.4 nm with a slope efficiency of 25% with respect to the absorbed pump power. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of an approximately 1.6 mu m Er:Y2O3 laser at room temperature. The prospects for further scaling of the output power and lasing efficiency via low Er3+ doping and reduced energy-transfer upconversion are discussed. (C) 2022 Optica Publishing Group

Automated summary

We report on the high-power operation of an approximately 1.6 μm Er:Y2O3 ceramic laser using a low-scattering-loss, 0.25 at.% Er3+-doped ceramic sample fabricated in-house via a co-precipitation process. The laser is in-band pumped by an Er, Yb fiber laser at 1535.6 nm and generates 10.2 W of continuous-wave (CW) output power at 1640.4 nm with a slope efficiency of 25%. This is the first demonstration of an approximately 1.6 μm Er:Y2O3 laser at room temperature. The prospects for further scaling of the output power and lasing efficiency via low Er3+ doping and reduced energy-transfer upconversion are discussed.