Room-temperature continuous-wave operation of a Ti:Al2O3 laser

Room-temperature cw operation of a Ti:Al(2)O(3) laser has been demonstrated for the first reported time. Laser emission at 770 nm was excited with an all-line Ar-ion laser pump. The maximum output power was 1.6 W. Values of (64 +/- 10)% for the internal quantum efficiency and (2.4 +/- 0.5)% for the round-trip cavity loss are obtained from the thresholds and slope efficiencies measured with 0.7 and 4.9% output couplers. The cavity-loss value places an upper bound of 0.007 cm(-1) on the absorption coefficient of the laser rod for the pi polarization (E ||ĉ) || at 770 nm, compared with 0.73 cm(-1) measured at 490 nm, the peak of the Ti(3+) pump band.