Exploring the self-mode locking of the 2  μm Tm:YAG laser with suppression of the self-pulsing dynamic

A continuous-wave (cw) self-mode-locked Tm:YAG laser at 2015 nm is successfully demonstrated by suppressing the self-pulsing behavior. By using rate equations to simulate the laser temporal dynamic, the theoretical analysis indicates that the reabsorption-induced self-pulsing for the Tm:YAG laser can be suppressed with sufficient pump power. It is experimentally confirmed that at absorbed powers higher than 6 W, the self-pulsing can be eliminated and a cw self-mode-locked pulse is generated instead of the Q-switched mode locking. At an absorbed power of 6.8 W, the output power of the self-mode-locked Tm:YAG laser reaches 1.22 W with corresponding pulse duration of 3 ps and a repetition rate of 3.376 GHz.