Thermally indiffused Tm³⁺:LiNbO₃ waveguide lasers

Rare earth doped LiNbO3 is an interesting laser host as it has nonlinear, electro-optic and acousto-optic properties. Low-loss waveguides can also be made in this material and then combined with thermal indiffusion of the laser dopant. LiNbO3 can also be periodically poled for quasi-phase matching and/or reduced photorefraction. We report the first room temperature lasing of Tm3+:LiNbO3, and the first periodically poled Ti waveguides formed by electric field poling. Lasing was observed at 1.85µm in a Ti-indiffused waveguide with rare earth doping performed by thermal indiffusion