980-nm diode-pumped power-scalable continuous wave mid-IR (2.7 _mm) fiber laser

We report a relatively efficient power-scalable mid-IR (2.7 _mm) Er3+:ZBLAN fiber laser pumped by readily available 980 nm laser diodes. The ~10 mW cw power levels demonstrated are significantly higher than those reported previously, presumably because the high Erconcentrations (10.000 ppm) used enable a rapid depletion of the lower laser level through cross-relaxation processes