Dual-Wavelength Temporal Dynamics of a Gain-Switched 2-μm Tm3+:Lu2O3 Ceramic Laser

We provide a detailed experimental investigation of the energy efficiency and rich temporal dynamics of a gain-switched 2-mu m Tm3+:Lu2O3 ceramic laser pumped near 800 nm. A tunable Ti3+:sapphire laser was used to determine the full excitation spectrum and the optimum pumping bands for the 1.5% Tm3+:Lu2O3 ceramic gain medium. These bands were centered at 774, 796, and 811 nm. The highest output pulse energy was obtained when the pump wavelength was set to 796 nm. In the experiments, a free-running x-cavity was used to investigate the energy efficiency of the Tm3+:Lu2O3 ceramic laser. Extracavity grating-dispersed output and prism-tuned resonator were used to further assess the role of cross-relaxation for the 1.5% Tm3+:Lu2O3 ceramic. Finally, we demonstrate that as the pump energy was increased, a transition occurred from-single-wavelength output (2068 nm) to dual-wavelength multipulse output (2068 and 1968 nm). We performed systematic temporal and spectral characterization measurements by using the free-running resonator, extracavity-grating-dispersed laser output, and prism-tuned resonator to investigate how the laser pulses at 1968 and 2068 nm evolved in time. A plane-wave rate equation model was further used to investigate the temporal dynamics of the Tm3+:Lu2O3 ceramic laser and provided predictions in qualitative agreement with experimental data.