Dysprosium-doped PbGa2S4 laser excited by diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser.

We realized a compact mid-IR room temperature operating Dy(3+):PbGa(2)S(4) laser, excited by a diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser at a wavelength of 1318 nm. The pumping laser was operating in pulsed mode with a pulse length of 4 ms and repetition rate of 20 Hz. Maximum pumping energy at a wavelength of 1318 nm was 15 mJ. Energy up to 90 µJ and mean output power of 1.8 mW was obtained at a wavelength of 4290 nm with a slope efficiency with respect to absorbed pumping energy better than 3%.

Oscillation properties of dysprosium-doped lead thiogallate crystal.

The room-temperature laser-oscillation properties of lead thiogallate crystals doped with dysprosium ions PbGa(2)S(4):Dy(3+) without additional codoping and codoped with potassium ion for excessive charge compensation were investigated. A slope efficiency of 1% was obtained for the codoped crystal. YAP:Er -1.66 microm laser resonant pumping of PbGa(2)S(4):Dy(3+) laser was compared with YAG:Nd -1.32 microm nonresonant pumping. The maximum energy obtained was 57 microJ with the negligible influence of the atmosphere.

Pulsed and cw laser oscillations in LiF:F-2 color center crystal under laser diode pumping.

Continuous-wave laser oscillations in LiF:F-2 crystal optically pumped by a laser diode at 970 nm were demonstrated for what is believed to be the first time. The slope efficiency of 14% and conversion efficiency of 5.5% were achieved for 80 micros pump pulse duration and 5 Hz pulse repetition rate. An efficiency twice as low was measured at a 6.25 kHz pulse repetition rate (50% off-duty factor) and in cw mode of laser operation.

Laser and self-Raman-laser oscillations of PBMoO4:Nd3+ crystal under laser diode pumping.

Different regimes of laser operation and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) for a laser diode (LD)-pumped PbMoO4:Nd3+ crystal have been investigated. Under 1.5 W LD pumping, the output power of the PbMoO4:Nd3+ laser in the free-running mode at 1056 nm reached 0.65 W with a slope efficiency of up to 53%. Using different LiF: F-2 saturable absorbers, we achieved a maximum pulse energy of 11 microJ at a 1.4 ns pulse duration and a maximum output power of 0.35 W (10 microJ) at a 7 ns pulse width in the passively Q-switched mode. PbMoO4:Nd3+ self-Raman-laser operation at 1163 nm (first Stokes) was obtained for the first time, to our knowledge. The self-Raman-laser output pulse energy was measured to be as high as 6 microJ and the pulse duration was estimated to be shorter than 500 ps.