Widely Tunable, 25-mW Power, Ti:sapphire Crystal-Fiber Laser

Using a glass-clad Ti:sapphire crystal fiber (CF) as the gain medium, we demonstrate for the first time a diodepumped, 25-mW tunable laser with a 180-nm tuning range. Active medium is a 2.4-cm long, a-cut Ti:sapphire CF we have drawn with an elliptical core of 13-μm diameter in the [0001] axis and 15.5-μm diameter in the [11̅00] axis. The CF is cladded with silica and has high efficiency (88%) of coupling to the pump, a diode laser emitting 1-W at 520-nm. A blazed grating provides a continuous smooth tuning on the wavelength range from 700 to 880 nm.