Cr²⁺:ZnSe laser pumped by 1.66 μm or 1.97 μm radiations

Abstract

Cr:ZnSe crystal newly grown by Bridgman method was investigated as an active material for laser coherently pumped either by flashlamp-pumped Er:YAP (wavelength 1.66 µm) or by diode pumped Tm:YAP (wavelength 1.97 µm) laser radiations. The maximal Cr:ZnSe laser output pulse energy, for the case of flashlamp Er:YAP laser pumping, was 14 mJ (slope efficiency 66%) with the length of pulse 120 µs. The generated laser radiation was tunable from 2.15 µm to 2.60 µm with only 2.5 times drop in laser energy. In the case of diodepumped Tm:YAP laser pumping the maximal obtained Cr:ZnSe laser output power in cw regime was 195 mW for the absorbed pump power 300 mW (slope efficiency 66%). The generated laser radiation was tunable from 2.12 µm up to 2.38 µm.

Tunable mid-infrared laser properties of Cr2+:ZnMgSe and Fe2+:ZnSe crystals

“…That indicates the "red" shift towards the longer wavelengths both for absorption and fluorescence in comparison with Cr:ZnSe crystal which maxima fall into the wavelength 1700 nm and 2100 nm for the absorption and the fluorescence, respectively [10]. Figure 5 (online color at www.lphys.org) The dependency of output energy on the absorbed energy for the Cr 2+ :ZnMgSe laser investigated sample was 2.86 mm, and the dopant concentration was chosen to ensure about 70% absorption at 2.94 μm pumping wavelength.…”

“…The thickness of the sample was 5 mm. The concentration of the Cr 2+ ions in the crystal was in order of 10 19 cm −3 . The Cr 2+ lifetime in ZnMgSe crystal was measured to be 6.3 μs at the room temperature [15].…”

1.6μm microchip laser

“…The strong up-conversion radiationmainly in the green region of the spectra -was found for both systems. The new microchip lasers should be attractive for laboratory research (for example for pumping of Cr:ZnSe laser, which is up to now pumped by flash lamp Er:YAP laser [15,16]) and also in the laser eye-safe applications in medicine, technology, etc.…”

Diode-pumped room-temperature continuous wave Tm3+doped Lu2SiO5laser

“…Also, high-power quasi-continuous wave (QCW) 2-μm lasers with high peak power are effective pump sources of optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) and optical parametric amplifiers (OPAs) for frequency conversion in the 3 -12 μm range [3][4][5][6][7]. To obtain 2-μm laser output, Tm, Ho lasers such as Tm, Ho:LuLF [8] and Tm, Ho:YAG [9] have been investigated widely.…”