Comparison of laser generation in thermally bonded and unbonded Er3+,Yb3+:glass/Co2+:MgAl2O4 microchip lasers

Pulse laser generation in several Er3+,Yb3+:glasses thermally bonded with Co2+:MgAl2O4 was achieved. Peak power in the range of 1.83-7.68 kW with pulse duration between 2.9 and 4.2 ns and energy up to 24 μJ was obtained. The output characteristics for different transmissions of the output couplers were investigated. To show the improvements gained by the thermal bonding procedure, a comparison of thermally bonded and unbonded samples was done in terms of generation efficiency, peak power, beam quality, generated spectra and pulse to pulse jitter.