Resonantly pumped Tm-doped fiber laser with >90% slope efficiency

We have demonstrated what we believe is the highest slope efficiency reported for a Tm-doped fiber laser operating in the 2-micron spectral region. Using a 1908 nm Tm-doped fiber laser as an in-band pump source, we generated 1.43 W of output power at 2005 nm with 81.25% optical efficiency and 90.2% slope efficiency, with respect to launched pump power. This resonant-pumping approach allowed us to examine the bleaching effects in Tm-doped fiber under resonant pumping. We also analytically show that this pumping method can scale to high power levels while maintaining high efficiency.