Diode-pumped efficient laser operation and spectroscopy of Tm,Ho:YVO4

Spectroscopic characterization of co-doped Tm,Ho:YVO4 crystal grown by the Czochralski method has been performed including absorption spectrum, emitting spectrum and luminescence decay lifetime. The polarization emitting spectrum around 2 mu m is accomplished by exciting a singly Ho3+ doped YVO4 crystal to exclude the influence of Tm3+ F-3(4)-H-3(6) transition and the emission cross section is deduced from both Fuchtbauer-Ladenburg (F-L) equation and reciprocity method (RM). In addition, we report up to 10.4W continuous wave (CW) output with a conversion efficiency of 40% and 10.3 W Q.-Switch output with 12.5 kHz pulse repetition rate of diode-pumped cryogenic Tm,Ho:YVO4 laser. For Q-Switch operation, the minimum pulse width of 28.2 ns is obtained, all of which demonstrate that the Tm,Ho:YVO4 is excellent laser material for 2 mu m radiation. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.