Broadband mid-infrared (IR) supercontinuum laser is generated in standard single-mode fiber-28 directly pumped by a 2054 nm nanosecond Q-switched Tm,Ho:YVO4 laser. The average output powers of 0.53 W in the ~1.95–2.5 μm spectral band and 0.65 W in the ~1.97–2.45 μm spectral band are achieved at pulse rate frequencies of 7 and 10 kHz, and the corresponding optic-to-optic conversion efficiencies are 34.6% and 42.4% by considering the coupling efficiency. The output spectra have extremely high flatness in the range 2060–2400 and 2060–2360 nm with negligible intensity variation (<2%), respectively. The output pulse shape is not split, and pulse width is reduced from 29 to ~15.4 ns. The beam quality factor M2 is 1.06, measured using traveling knife-edge method, and the laser beam spot is also monitored by an IR vidicon camera.

A high-powered millijoule pulse energy Tm3+-doped fiber amplifier seeded with a Q-switched operation of Tm (4 at.-%), Ho (0.4 at.-%):YVO4 laser is reported. The output characteristics of the amplified laser are studied at the coupled powers of 0.266, 1.24, and 2.65 W. Maximum output power up to 15.7 W is at 10-kHz repetition rate. Nonlinear effects are not observed from the emitting spectrum and the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the pulse duration is reduced from 40.1 to 25.9 ns at 1.57-mJ pulse energy. The beam quality factor M2x=1.9\pm 0.03, M2y=2.1\pm 0.02 at the output power of 14.5 W is measured using the traveling knife-edge method.