Abstract

Among the various active ions used in solid state lasers, the rare earth ion Er³⁺ exhibits the largest number of lasing transitions. In the infrared region around 2.8 μm alone, over twenty laser lines with different wavelengths have been reported for this ion in a large number of different host materials.⁽¹⁾ These lines have been identified as arising from the self-saturating laser transitions between the Stark components of the ⁴I_11/2 and ⁴I_13/2 states of the Er³⁺ ion, and range in wavelength between 2.69 μm and 2.94 μm.^(1,2,3)

© 1985 Optical Society of America