New mid-IR laser based on an erbium activated low phonon energy crystal

Author

Bowman, Steven R. ; Searles, S.K. ; Jenkins, N.W. ; Qadri, Syed B. ; Skelton, E.F. ; Ganem, J.

Author_Institution

Div. of Opt. Sci., Naval Res. Lab., Washington, DC, USA

fYear

2001

fDate

11-11 May 2001

Firstpage

557

Lastpage

558

Abstract

Summary form only given. Important DOD applications require high brightness sources in the thermal band from 4.5 /spl mu/m-5.0 /spl mu/m. To fill this need, we have explored direct emission on the 41/sub 9/2/ /spl rarr/ 41/sub 11/2/ transition in trivalent erbium. To avoid multi-phonon quenching of the mid-IR transition, we have investigated chloride host crystals that possess low energy phonon spectra. A simple end-pumped resonator was utilized for these experiments.

Keywords

erbium; infrared sources; laser transitions; optical pumping; solid lasers; 4.5 to 5.0 micron; KPb/sub 2/Cl/sub 5/:Er; chloride host crystals; end-pumped resonator; excited states; high brightness sources; intense laser pumping; laser transition; low energy phonon spectra; mid-IR laser; near diffraction limited Gaussian profile; Biological materials; Crystalline materials; Fiber lasers; Glass; Inorganic materials; Laser excitation; Laser transitions; Optical materials; Photonic crystals; Pump lasers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Lasers and Electro-Optics, 2001. CLEO '01. Technical Digest. Summaries of papers presented at the Conference on

Conference_Location

Baltimore, MD, USA

Print_ISBN

1-55752-662-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CLEO.2001.948162

Filename

948162