High-power diode-pumped Yb,Er:LSB laser at 1.56 /spl mu/m

Summary form only given. Lasers in the eyesafe 1.55-/spl mu/m region are of great interest especially for atmospheric measurements (LIDAR) due to the atmospheric window at this wavelength. The erbium ground-state transition at this wavelength is well known and lasing could be achieved in different host materials as YAG and different glasses. Glass lasers normally show higher efficiencies and output powers than lasers on the basis of crystalline hosts. This might be due to their higher phonon energies, which lead to efficient quenching of the 4I/sub 11/2/-level reducing upconversion losses from this level. We used a 1.6-mm-thick Yb(10%),Er(0.5%):LSB crystal in our experiments.