Continuously tunable high-power single-longitudinal-mode Ho:YLF laser around the P12 CO₂ absorption line

A continuously tuned single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) Ho:YLF laser around the P12 CO₂ absorption line was demonstrated. The continuous tuning range of 5.75 pm within one longitudinal mode spacing of the Ho:YLF resonator was realized by using a novel intra-cavity wedge prism device fixed on the piezoelectric transducer (PZT) as the cavity length controller. High SLM power of 11.3 W was obtained from a Ho:YLF amplifier with three crystals at the pump power of 31.8 W and master oscillator power of 323 mW, corresponding to a gain of 15.44 dB and an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 34.5%. The beam quality factors M² of the SLM Ho:YLF amplifier in the x and y directions were estimated to be 1.04 and 1.05, respectively.