85 W Tm/sup 3+/-doped 2 /spl mu/m fibre laser pumped at 793 nm

Through diode pumping at 793 nm we have achieved 85 W output from a Tm/sup 3+/-doped silica fibre laser operating at 2.04 /spl mu/m. To the best of our knowledge this is the highest output power achieved for pumping at 793 nm. The slope efficiency was 56% giving an overall quantum efficiency of 130%.