Diode-pumped and packaged acoustooptically tunable Ti:Er:LiNbO3 waveguide laser of wide tuning range

Design, fabrication, and properties of an acoustooptically tunable Ti:Er:LiNbO₃ waveguide laser of up to 31-nm tuning range in the wavelength band 1530 nm<λ<1575 nm are discussed. The laser cavity is formed by an Au mirror and a dielectric mirror as output coupler, both vacuum-deposited on the polished waveguide endfaces. As tunable intracavity wavelength filter with zero frequency shift, two monolithically integrated single-stage acoustooptical TE-TM-mode converters are used together with two polarization splitters operated as TE- and TM-pass polarizers, respectively. The minimum threshold of about 54 mW (coupled) pump power is obtained at λ≈1561-nm emission wavelength for diode laser pumping at λ_p≈1480 nm. With about 110-mW coupled pump power, up to 320-μW output power is achieved; the emission linewidth is 0.3 nm