ISSN:
1089-7550
Source:
AIP Digital Archive
Topics:
Physics
Notes:
In additively colored NaCl, KCl, and KBr crystals doped with O−2 anionic molecular impurities, a laser active defect is formed by optically induced association of F centers with oxygen-vacancy defect pairs. The formed defect has F+2 -like properties in terms of optical transition energies, Stokes shift, and optical gain. It can be regarded as an F+2 center attached in different possible configurations to a neighboring double negatively charged oxygen anion impurity which replaces a halide ion. Stable cw laser operation could be realized, so far, in the hosts NaCl, KCl, and KBr. Pumped with 10 W at 1.064 μm the NaCl center laser was tunable from 1.45 to 1.74 μm with 1.3 W peak output power at 1.60 μm. The KCl and KBr systems, both pumped at 1.32/1.34 μm, were tunable from 1.66 to 1.97 μm with 170 mW peak output, and from 1.86 to 2.16 μm with 30-mW peak output, respectively. Depending on the host material the laser crystals do or do not require auxiliary light exposure exciting the higher-energy transitions of the laser active center in the F center absorption range. The auxiliary F light produces and maintains, by induced F+2 center reorientation, the laser active defect configuration in NaCl and KBr, while in KCl it separates the F+2 center from the O−− impurity.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.338136
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