Growth of Laser Crystal and Mid-Infrared Laser Technology

Abstract

Dunlu Sun

My research interests are the growth of laser crystal and mid-in- frared laser technology. In recent years, Er3+-doped crystals have been paid extensive attention due to the transition between 4 I11/2 and 4 I13/2 excited states producing 2.7-3 μm laser. It is due to the 2.7-3 μm laser is in the strong absorption band of water and bio- logical tissues and has also high atmospheric transmittance in a special wavelength, leading to numerous applications in the fields of biomedicine, industry, and science research, etc. In addition, some nonlinear crystals have low absorption loss in the 2.7-3 μm waveband, so it can be used as an ideal pump source for optical parametric oscillators (OPO) to obtain lasers in the 3-5 and 8-14 μm mid-infrared wavebands. In our group, we have grown suc- cessfully many Er3+ or Ho3+ doping laser crystal with high opti- cal quality, such as Er:YSGG, Cr,Er:YSGG, Er:YAP, Er:GYSGG, Er:LuYSGG, Ho:YAP and so on. Moreover, the 2.7-3 μm lasers with high laser performance have been achieved by flash-lamp pumping, 970 nm LD end and side-pumping, and laser perfor- mances have also been improved further by thermal bonding and concave end-faces, which relevant works have been published in the Optics Letters, Optics Express, Optics Communications, and Optics and Laser Technology, etc.

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