White emission of Yb²⁺:fluoride glasses efficiently excited with near-UV light.

Various Yb²⁺-containing fluoride glasses melting under a reductive atmosphere were prepared. The brightest white light emission was observed for an AlF₃-based fluoride glass not containing Hf or Zr. The largest full width at half maximum of the white emission spectra was 202 nm.

Efficient 521 nm all-fiber laser: splicing Pr(3+)-doped ZBLAN fiber to end-coated silica fiber.

We demonstrated a green all-fiber laser by splicing both ends of a Pr(3+)-doped ZBLAN fiber to silica fibers, whose ends were coated with a dielectric thin film. The output power and the slope efficiency were 322 mW and 53%, respectively, and the coupled pump power of the two blue GaN pump lasers in the silica fiber core was 652 mW. We estimated that the damage threshold of the spliced structure was at least 21 MW/cm².

Visible-NIR tunable Pr3+-doped fiber laser pumped by a GaN laser diode.

We demonstrated continuous wave laser operation with a tunable range of over 300 nm in the visible and near-infrared regions (479-497, 515-548, 597-737, 849-960 nm) using a single 9-cm Pr(3+)-doped ZBLAN fiber pumped by a GaN laser. The total tunable range was 6469 cm(-1), which is wider than that of conventional Ti:sapphire lasers.