Half-Watt Tm³⁺-Doped Fluoride Fiber Laser at 785 nm

All-fiber single-transverse-mode laser oscillators operating at 785 nm were demonstrated by splicing a 0.1 mol% Tm³⁺-doped fluoride fiber with a core diameter of 4 μm and a numerical aperture of 0.07 to a pair of silica fiber Bragg gratings. About 500 mW of continuous-wave single transverse mode laser output at 784.5 nm with a 3-dB spectral bandwidth of 0.2 nm was obtained by upconversion pumping a 3-m-long gain fiber at 1125 nm. Our experiments show that the ground-state absorption of Tm³⁺ at 785 nm is the origin of low efficiency in previous reports. The efficiency of this all-fiber laser can be improved by using a gain fiber with an optimized overlap between the laser, the pump, and the fiber core, and employing new pumping schemes that deplete the ground state sufficiently.