Room temperature efficient continuous wave and Q-switched Ho:YAG laser double-pass pumped by a diode-pumped Tm:YLF laser

We report the room temperature continuous wave and acousto-optically Q-switched Ho:YAG laser double-pass pumped by a diode-pumped Tm:YLF laser. Continuous wave output power of 10.5 W at 2090 nm is obtained under the incident. pump power of 18.1 W, corresponding to a conversion efficiency of 58.0% and a slope efficiency of 65.7%. For the Q-switched regime the maximum pulse energy of 1.0 mJ and the minimum pulse width of 25 ns at the repetition rate of 10 kHz are achieved, resulting in a peak power of 40.0 kW. [GRAPHICS] The CW and 10 kHz repetition rate output power of Ho:YAG. Solid line is a linear fit to the CW output data (C) 2008 by Astro Ltd. Published exclusively by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA