Mitigation of bleaching in a Cr/sup 2+/:CdSe laser

Author

McKay, J. ; Krause, D. ; Schepler, K.L.

Author_Institution

Air Force Inst. of Technol., Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, USA

fYear

2000

fDate

7-12 May 2000

Firstpage

453

Abstract

Summary form only given. Cr/sup 2+/:CdSe has been found to be a capable material for mid-IR pulsed lasing continuously tunable from 2.3 to 2.9 /spl mu/m. The absorption cross section of the material is high, therefore low doping levels of Cr/sup 2+/ are used, approximately 50 parts per million (ppm). This concentration is significantly lower than the concentrations of active ions used in other solid-state transition metal ion lasers, e.g., 1% Nd/sup 3+/ or 0.1-1% Ti/sup 3+/. Since the Cr/sup 2+/ concentration in Cr/sup 2+/:CdSe is small, laser pumping can bleach the absorption, resulting in diminished C/sup 2+/ laser efficiency. We characterize the bleaching and discuss one method of reducing its effects.

Keywords

II-VI semiconductors; cadmium compounds; chromium; laser beams; laser cavity resonators; laser mirrors; laser tuning; optical materials; optical pumping; optical saturable absorption; semiconductor doping; semiconductor lasers; 2.3 to 2.9 mum; CdSe:Cr; Cr/sup 2+/:CdSe; Cr/sup 2+/:CdSe laser; absorption; absorption cross section; active ions; bleaching; continuously tunable lasing; diminished laser efficiency; laser pumping; low doping levels; mid-IR pulsed lasing; solid-state transition metal ion lasers; Absorption; Bleaching; Chromium; Doping; Laser transitions; Optical materials; Pump lasers; Solid lasers; Solid state circuits; Tunable circuits and devices;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Lasers and Electro-Optics, 2000. (CLEO 2000). Conference on

Conference_Location

San Francisco, CA, USA

Print_ISBN

1-55752-634-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CLEO.2000.907240

Filename

907240