ScBO3:Cr--A room temperature near-infrared tunable laser

We report the first room temperature tunable laser in a borate single crystal. A tuning range of 787-892 nm has been demonstrated in a ScBO3: Cr laser. The laser loss is estimated to be 1.3 percent/cm from our preliminary laser results. Spectroscopic measurements indicate that the material is clear of absorption loss in the lasing spectral region, and the relative fluorescence efficiency for the entire Cr absorption band in the visible region is nearly unity. ScBO3:Cr holds promise as a high efficiency near-infrared tunable laser.