Abstract

The most cost effective use of diode-laser-pump sources occurs in a regime in which the diodes are operated with a high-duty cycle factor. The design of diode-pumped, solid-state amplifier modules therefore requires a gain medium with a long storage time to obtain the maximum benefit from the diodes. Crystals doped with the rare earth ions Er³⁺, Tm³⁺, and Ho³⁺ satisfy this criterion of a long lifetime (>10 ms), although it is also necessary that a transition terminating on a high-lying (thermally depopulated) Stark level of the ground manifold exhibit an adequate emission cross section.

© 1991 Optical Society of America