Recent progress in visible fluoride fiber lasers

Abstract

We overview recent advances in visible single- and double-clad fluoride fiber lasers pumped by blue GaN laser diodes. The spectroscopic properties of ZBLAN glasses doped with Pr3+, Ho3+ and Dy3+ ions are revised. Power scalable efficient continuous-wave visible fluoride fiber lasers emitting in the green, yellow, red and deep-red spectral ranges are presented. Pumped by a single-emitter 6-W 443-nm GaN laser diode, a continuous-wave red double-clad Pr:ZBLAN fiber laser delivered 1.51 W at 634.5 nm with a slope efficiency of 31.0%, a laser threshold of 0.63 W and a spatially single-mode output (M2 ~1.02). Employing a high-power fiber-coupled laser module, power scalability up to 4.61 W was achieved at the expense of a lower slope efficiency of 22.8% and an increased laser threshold of 1.74 W. Green Ho:ZBLAN (543 nm) and yellow Dy:ZBLAN (575 nm) fiber lasers with high-brightness core pumping at …