Abstract

Considerable interest has developed over the last year in laser diode pumping of new solid state materials such as erbium YAG for eye safe lasers at 1.54 μm and thulium and holmium doped solid state hosts for generation of a range of I.R. wavelengths. These new requirements span a range of laser diode wavelengths. Thulium, holmium require pump wavelengths in the range of 788 nm while erbium requires ⁻970 nm (InGaAs diodes). Laser diode arrays are now available at all such wavelengths (788 nm to 970 nm) and showing comparable lifetimes under cw or pulsed conditions as obtained from more conventional laser diode arrays operating at ⁻810 nm.

© 1990 Optical Society of America