Abstract

Two-micron laser sources are very attractive for many applications, such as medical surgery, atmospheric wind lidar, gas detection, or pumping of mid-IR optical parametric oscillators [1]. Tm-doped materials (crystals or glass fibers) enabling generation at 1.8-2.1 μm provide a good opportunity for creation of the laser sources. The efficient cross-relaxation populating of the upper 2-μm laser level in addition to pumping of the Tm-doped materials by commercially available laser diodes at 800 nm is their important advantage.

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