We report on a high-efficiency, high-power tandem Ho:YAG single-crystal fiber (SCF) laser in-band pumped by a Tm-doped fiber laser at 1907 nm. In addition to the uniform heat distribution resulting from the large surface-to-volume ratio of this fiber-like thin-crystal rod, the long gain region provided by the tandem layout of two SCFs enables high lasing efficiency and power handling capability. More than 100 W output power is achieved at 2.1 μm, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 70.5% and an optical-to-optical efficiency of 67.6%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest output power and efficiency ever reported from SCF lasers in the 2-μm spectral range.
