Title :
Ce3+-activated fluoride crystals as prospective active media for widely tunable ultraviolet ultrafast lasers with direct 10-ns pumping
Author :
Sarukura, Nobuhiko ; Dubinskii, Mark A. ; Liu, Zhenlin ; Semashko, Vadim V. ; Naumov, Alexander K. ; Korableva, Stella L. ; Abdulsabirov, Ravil Y. ; Edamatsu, Keiichi ; Suzuki, Yoshiro ; Itoh, Tadashi ; Segawa, Yusaburo
Author_Institution :
Inst. of Phys. & Chem. Res., Miyagi, Japan
fDate :
9/1/1995 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
New possibilities have been investigated for recently developed solid-state tunable ultraviolet (UV) laser materials such as Ce3+ ion-activated LuLiF4 (LLF) and LiCaAlF6 (LiCAF). With their broad-gain width, demonstrated reliability, and high efficiency, they are attractive for ultrashort pulse generation and amplification. To prove that, we have demonstrated UV picosecond-pulse amplification using Ce:LLF. For such new laser materials, we proposed a passive self-injection seeding scheme for the direct generation of short-pulse trains, which does not require CW operation capability or an external short-pulse seeding laser, Using this simple scheme, a UV sub-nanosecond pulse train is directly and passively generated from Ce:LLF pumped by a standard 10-ns KrF excimer laser, and Ce:LiCAF pumped by the fourth harmonic of a conventional 10-ns Q-switched Nd:YAG laser
Keywords :
aluminium compounds; calcium compounds; cerium; high-speed optical techniques; laser reliability; laser tuning; lithium compounds; lutetium compounds; optical pumping; solid lasers; 10 ns; Ce3+-activated fluoride crystals; Ce3+:LiCaAlF6; Ce3+:LuLiF4; KrF; KrF excimer laser; LiCaAlF6:Ce; LuLiF4:Ce; Q-switched Nd:YAG laser; UV picosecond-pulse amplification; UV sub-nanosecond pulse train; YAG:Nd; YAl5O12:Nd; active media; broad-gain width; direct pumping; efficiency; passive self-injection seeding scheme; reliability; short-pulse trains; solid-state laser materials; tunable ultraviolet ultrafast lasers; ultrashort pulse amplification; ultrashort pulse generation; Laser excitation; Optical harmonic generation; Optical materials; Optical pulse generation; Pulse amplifiers; Pulse generation; Pump lasers; Solid lasers; Solid state circuits; Tunable circuits and devices;
Journal_Title :
Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of
DOI :
10.1109/2944.473661