Abstract

The expansion of laser sources operating near 3 μm is motivated in large by their strong absorption in several gases, liquid water, and plastics, critical for applications in remote sensing, soft and hard tissue surgery, and materials processing [1,2]. Both CW and pulsed operations were demonstrated in Cr²⁺:CdSe lasers with wide tunability range spanning from 2 µm to 3.6 µm. Different pump sources were used, such as Tm³⁺- and Tm³⁺,Ho³⁺-doped crystal lasers, diodes and Tm-fiber lasers [3,4]. The relatively short lifetime of the upper laser level and low damage threshold of Cr²⁺:CdSe crystal surface limit maximum pulse energy and average power in the repetitively-pulsed Cr²⁺:CdSe oscillators [2-4]. The highest average power achieved so far in the Cr²⁺:CdSe lasers was less than 1 W at kHz pulse repetition rate (PRR). In this report, we present an efficient high-repetition-rate Cr²⁺:CdSe single-crystal laser operating around 3 µm with the output power of up to 6 W and pumped at 2.1 µm by a fiber-laser-pumped Ho³⁺:YAG laser.

© 2019 IEEE