Abstract
We report for the first time continuous wave (CW) red laser emission in Tm+3-doped ZBLAN fiber laser, operated at 650 nm ((1) G (4) -> (3) F (4) transition of Tm+3). The excitation uses a three step upconversion scheme. The pump source is a Nd:YAG laser operated at 1.064 mu m. A laser output power of CW 80 mW was obtained for 1.42 W of launched pump power. The slope efficiency with respect to launched pump power was measured to be 7.7%. The temporal behavior of the emitted laser is also addressed.