Watt-level ultrafast laser inscribed Thulium waveguide lasers

Abstract We report on the first watt-level ultrafast laser inscribed Thulium waveguide (WG) lasers. Depressed-index buried channel WGs with a circular cladding (type III) are produced in monoclinic Tm3+:KLu(WO4)2 crystals. Laser operation is achieved under conventional (3H6 → 3H4) and in-band (3H6 → 3F4) pumping. In the former case, employing a Raman fiber laser emitting at 1679 nm as pump, the continuous-wave Tm channel WG laser generated 1.37 W at 1915-1923 nm with a record-high slope efficiency of 82.7% (with respect to the absorbed pump power), a threshold of only 17 mW and a spatially single-mode output with linear polarization. The WG propagation losses were 0.2±0.3 dB/cm. Passive Q-switching of Tm channel WG lasers is achieved using Cr2+:ZnS and Cr2+:ZnSe saturable absorbers. With Cr2+:ZnS, record-short pulses of 2.6 ns/6.9 μJ at a repetition rate of 8.0 kHz were generated. The developed WGs are promising for compact GHz mode-locked lasers at ∼2 μm.