Cavity-dumped 2.70 μm erbium laser using optomechanical shutter

Abstract

A cavity-dumped 2.70 μm erbium laser with a frustrated total internal reflection (FTIR) shutter was investigated and compared with a Q -switched erbium laser using the FTIR shutter. The Q -switched and the cavity-dumped 2.70 μm laser outputs were obtained with a dichroic coated mirror with high reflectance at 2.70 μm and high transmittance at 2.79 μm. For the Q -switched operation, a maximum peak power of 33.5 kW was achieved, and its pulse width was 1.3 μs. For the cavity-dumped operation, the laser pulse energy was optimized by changing the switching time of the FTIR shutter. When the pulse width is reduced to 210 ns, the peak power increases to 154 kW. © 2008 American Institute of Physics.