Monolithic fluoride-fiber laser at 1480 nm using fiber Bragg gratings

We report what we believe is the first monolithic fluoride-fiber laser making use of fiber Bragg gratings written directly in the doped fluoride-fiber core. The Tm(3+):ZBLAN fiber laser is upconversion pumped at 1070 nm and emits at 1480 nm. Using two different all-fiber cavities, we observed a threshold as low as 75 mW and a conversion efficiency of up to 40% with respect to launched pump power.