High-power, continuous-wave Ti:sapphire laser pumped by fiber-laser green source at 532 nm

We report the first experimental demonstration of efficient and high-power operation of a Ti:sapphire laser pumped by a simple, compact, continuous-wave (cw) fiber-laser-based green source. The pump radiation is obtained by direct single-pass second-harmonic-generation (SHG) of a 33 W, cw Yb-fiber laser in a 30-mm-long MgO:sPPLT crystal, providing 11 W of single-frequency green power at 532 nm in TEM00 spatial profile with power and frequency stability better than 3.3% and 32 MHz, respectively, over 1 h. The Ti:sapphire laser is continuously tunable across 743–970 nm and can deliver an output power up to 2.7 W with a slope efficiency as high as 32.8% under optimum output coupling of 20%. The laser output has a TEM00 spatial profile with M2<1.44 across the tuning range and exhibits a peak-to-peak power fluctuation below 5.1% over 1 h.

► First experimental demonstration of Ti:sapphire laser pumped by a cw-fiber-laser-green-source.
► CW, single-pass SHG results compact, and cost effective green source at 532 nm with power >11 W (±3%).
► Fiber lasers has additional advantages of air-cooling and flexible packaging over DPSS green source.
► Ti:sapphire output power >2.7 W tunability of >227 nm across 743–970 nm in a TEM00 mode (M2<1.44).
► Fiber green laser is opening new avenue for compact, cost effective Ti:saphire lasers (all time scales).