Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE
Optical bistability in an end-pumped Tm,Ho:YLF laser at room temperature
Xinlu Zhang, Li Li, Jinhui Cui
Abstract
We demonstrate strong optical bistability in 2μm continuous wave Tm,Ho:YLF laser pumped by a 792nm laser diode near room temperature. The bistable region is as much as 100mW wide at 283K and can be controlled by the temperature of the laser crystal. The influence of crystal temperature on the characteristics of optical bistability is obtained. The influence of the pump-to-mode ratio on the bistable characteristics of the laser is also discussed.