Extended tunabilityof Nd-doped fiber lasers operating at 872-936 nm

Efficient operation of an Nd-doped fiber laser operating in a wavelength-tunable configuration using a volume Bragg grating (VBG) is reported in this Letter. A high-power operation on the F-4(3/2) - I-4(9/2) transition of Nd3+ at short wavelengths below 900 nm is demonstrated for the first time in silica fibers. A high-efficiency (47% laser conversion) output power up to 22 W and a narrow linewidth of 0.035 nm are achieved. This configuration is compared with a more conventional fiber laser setup using a bandpass filter and a highly reflective dichroic mirror. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America