High-performance Ho:YAG single-crystal fiber laser in-band pumped by a Tm-doped all-fiber laser

12.7 W intra-cavity pumped Ho:YAG laser with near-diffraction-limited beam quality

We demonstrated a compact and efficient Ho:YAG slab laser intra-cavity pumped by a Tm:YLF slab laser for the first time. In the Tm:YLF laser operation, the maximum power of 32.1 W with optical-to-optical efficiency of 52.8% was obtained. In the intra-cavity pumped Ho:YAG laser operation, the output power of 12.7 W at 2122 nm was obtained. The beam quality factors M² in the vertical and horizontal directions were 1.22 and 1.11, respectively. The RMS instability was measured to be lower than 0.1%. To the best of our knowledge, this was the maximum power for the Tm-doped laser intra-cavity pumped Ho-doped laser with near-diffraction-limited beam quality.

Gain-switched Ho:YAG laser with a 3.35-ns pulse duration

This paper presents a gain-switched Ho:YAG laser at 2090 nm, pumped by a passively Q switched Tm:YLF. A pulse duration of 3.35 ns is achieved with a pulse energy of 0.7 mJ at 1.3-kHz repetition rate, corresponding to 209-kW peak power. The pump energy is 2.8 mJ, corresponding to 25% conversion efficiency with 37% slope efficiency. This laser performance with its compact design can be implemented in applications that require short pulse durations that have not been addressed to date.

Ho:LuAG single crystal fiber: growth, spectroscopy and laser characteristics

Lutetium aluminum garnet single-crystal fiber (SCF, ∼ Φ 0.9 mm - 165 mm) doped with 0.5 at.% Ho³⁺ has been grown by the micro-pulling-down (µ-PD) technique. The room-temperature absorption and emission spectra exhibit similar features to the bulk crystal. Laser performances of the SCFs with two different pump configurations, i.e., pump guiding and free-space propagation, are studied by employing a 1.9-µm laser diode and a high-brightness fiber laser, respectively. Laser slope efficiencies obtained with both pump configurations can be higher than 50%, and a maximum output power of 6.01 W is achieved at ∼ 2.09 µm with the former pump. The comparable efficiency to the high-brightness pump is an indication of that high laser performance can also be expected through pump-guiding in the SCF even with a low pump beam quality.

Endless Single-Mode Photonics Crystal Fiber Metalens for Broadband and Efficient Focusing in Near-Infrared Range

The advent of the ‘lab-on-fiber’ concept has boosted the prosperity of optical fiber-based platforms integrated with nanostructured metasurface technology which are capable of controlling the light at the nanoscale for multifunctional applications. Here, we propose an endless single-mode large-mode-area photonic crystal fiber (LMA-PCF) integrated metalens for broadband and efficient focusing from 800 to 1550 nm. In the present work, the optical properties of the substrate LMA-PCF were investigated, and the metalens, consisting of dielectric TiO₂ nanorods with varying radii, was elaborately designed in the fiber core region with a diameter of 48 μm to cover the required phase profile for efficient focusing with a high transmission. The focusing characteristics of the designed metalens were also investigated in detail over a wide wavelength range. It is shown that the in-fiber metalens is capable of converging the incident beams into the bright, symmetric, and legible focal spots with a large focal length of 315–380 μm depending on the operating wavelength. A high and average focusing efficiency of 70% was also obtained with varying wavelengths. It is believed the proposed fiber metalens may show great potential in applications including fiber laser configuration, machining, and fiber communication.