Intracavity Raman-pumped Ho/sup 3+/-doped silica fibre laser

Summary form only given. CW cascaded Raman fibre lasers are a well-known and efficient method of generating new and useful laser wavelengths. In an extension of this technique, doping the Raman fibre with a lanthanide ion that can absorb the Stokes radiation and emit at longer wavelengths could prove to be very practical. As an example of this technique, we will present numerical calculations and experiments based on the intracavity pumping of a Ho/sup 3+/-doped silica fibre at a 1/sup st/ Stokes wavelength of 1.15 /spl mu/m.