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Enhanced CW Lasing and Q‐Switched Pulse Generation Enabled by Tm 3+ ‐Doped Glass Ceramic Fibers
Author(s) -
Kang Shiliang,
Qiao Tian,
Huang Xiongjian,
Yang Changsheng,
Liu Xiaofeng,
Qiu Jianrong,
Yang Zhongmin,
Dong Guoping
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
advanced optical materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.89
H-Index - 91
ISSN - 2195-1071
DOI - 10.1002/adom.202001774
Subject(s) - materials science , lasing threshold , fiber laser , laser , optoelectronics , optical fiber , photonic crystal fiber , optics , slope efficiency , fiber , doping , ceramic , composite material , wavelength , physics
Fiber lasers, owing to the high beam quality and super robustness, are widely used in fields from optical communications, fiber sensing, biomedicine to material processing. The use of glass fibers as the gain medium has, however, posed a strong obstacle for improving efficiency and, especially, achieving efficient lasing action in the mid‐infrared (MIR) region, because of the relatively large nonradiative energy loss. Here, the fabrication of a Tm 3+ ‐doped tellurate glass‐ceramic (GC) fiber is demonstrated, which enables enhanced lasing action at ≈2 µm. Compared with the as‐prepared fiber, the optical conversion efficiency of GC fiber is increased from 8.8% to 14.1%. The microstructure and spectral characterization analyses suggest that the improvement of the laser performance in GC fiber is induced by the significant change of the local environment surrounding Tm 3+ ions due to the formation of nanocrystals within the glass fibers. Moreover, the developed GC fiber also enables Q ‐switched pulsed laser output at ≈2 µm with a pulse energy of 3.2 J and pulse width of 4.1 ns. The results demonstrated here may have strong implications in the development of MIR fiber lasers and the applications of GC fibers in MIR photonics.