CW 2.8 µm Laser Emission from Er:LiYF4 at 77K.

Laser radiation in the 3-µm wavelength region has important medical applications.(1,2) Recently considerable progress toward obtaining practical devices has been made. For example, cw 2.8 µm laser emission from diode-pumped Er:LiYF4 has been demonstrated at room temperature. In this paper we report an alternative scheme in which several watts of laser output have been obtained by pumping a cryogenically cooled rod with a high power tungsten lamp.