Room-temperature Tm, Ho : LuLiF4 laser with a novel quasi-end-pumping technique

A novel diode-pumped, efficient, quasi-end-pumping scheme that uses two len s ducts to achieve homogeneous pumping in a gain medium was proposed and ev aluated. With this technique, room-temperature laser action at a pulse repe tition frequency up to 20 Hz was demonstrated in 5%Tm, 0.5%Ho:LuLiF4, which we grew by the Czochralski method. At 10 Hz a long-pulse laser output ener gy in excess of 24 mJ and a slope efficiency with respect to the incident p ump energy of 10.7% were obtained. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.