title: Optical bistability effects in a Tm,Ho:YLF laser at room temperature.
abstract: We demonstrate strong optical bistability in a 2 microm continuous-wave Tm,Ho:YLF laser pumped by a 792 nm laser diode near room temperature. The bistable region is as much as 100 mW wide at 283 K and can be controlled by the temperature of the laser crystal. The influence of crystal temperature on the characteristics of optical bistability is obtained. The influence of the pump-to-mode ratio on the bistable characteristics of the laser is also discussed. To our knowledge this is the first report of optical bistability effects in Tm,Ho:YLF lasers.
authors: College of Science, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China. zhangxinlu1@yahoo.com.cn
authors: Xinlu
authors: X
authors: Zhang
authors: Yuezhu
authors: Y
authors: Wang