Watt-level ultrafast laser inscribed thulium waveguide lasers

We report on the first watt-level ultrafast laser inscribed Thulium waveguide (WG) lasers. Depressed-index buried channel WGs with a circular cladding (type III) are produced in monoclinic Tm³⁺:KLu(WO₄)₂ crystals. Laser operation is achieved under conventional (³H₆ → ³H₄) and in-band (³H₆ → ³F₄) pumping. In the former case, employing a Raman fiber laser emitting at 1679 ​nm as pump, the continuous-wave Tm channel WG laser generated 1.37 ​W ​at 1915–1923 ​nm with a record-high slope efficiency of 82.7% (with respect to the absorbed pump power), a threshold of only 17 ​mW and a spatially single-mode output with linear polarization. The WG propagation losses were 0.2 ​± ​0.3 ​dB/cm. Passive Q-switching of Tm channel WG lasers is achieved using Cr²⁺:ZnS and Cr²⁺:ZnSe saturable absorbers. With Cr²⁺:ZnS, record-short pulses of 2.6 ns/6.9 ​μJ ​at a repetition rate of 8.0 ​kHz were generated. The developed WGs are promising for compact GHz mode-locked lasers at ~2 ​μm.