Spectroscopic and lasing performance of Tm3+-doped bulk TZN and TZNG tellurite glasses operating around 1.9 mu m

We report spectroscopic and bulk laser performance characteristics for Tm3+-doped tellurite glasses when used as gain media operating around 1.9 mu m. Two glass hosts studied are TZN and TZNG and their performances have been compared. In each case, well-characterized cw laser performance was obtained and this has been related to detailed spectroscopic measurements of the important lasing parameters of the laser transitions around 1900 nm when pumped at 793 nm. The maximum output power achieved was 124 mW from the TZNG sample with an associated slope efficiency of 28 % with a tuning range of 135 nm. Efficiency and loss analyses yielded a calculated maximum attainable efficiency of 48 % in Tm3+: TZN compared to 28 % for the TZNG host. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America