Abstract
Tunable ultra-violet solid state lasers are desirable for many applications in medicine, industry, and scientific research, including remote sensing. High absorption and stimulated emission cross sections of the dipole allowed 4f – 5d transitions show promise in cerium as a laser ion in crystals. Several research groups have already reported the observation of stimulated emission of cerium in LiYF4 [1], LiSrAlF6 [2], and LiCaAlF6 [3,4]. However, the color center formation in the crystals due to the excited state absorption of ultra-violet pump light adds difficulty to achieving laser action. [5,6]. We have investigated the spectroscopic properties of cerium such as absorption and emission spectra in five different fluoride crystals, including LiCaAlF6, LiSrAlF6, KYF4, LiYF4 and GdLiF4. We have derived the polarized absorption and stimulated emission cross sections from transmission and fluorescence emission measurements for each of the host crystals, except GdLiF4. We have measured the lifetime of the lowest 5d level moreover investigated the temperature dependence of this lifetime and the color center formation. Our results on absorption and stimulated emission cross sections for LiCaAlF6 and LiSrAlF6 are similar to the results already published [7].
© 1995 Optical Society of America
PDF ArticleMore Like This
D.A. Hammons, M.C. Richardson, B.H.T. Chai, and M. Bass
US10 Advanced Solid State Lasers (ASSL) 1997
V.B. Sigachev, T.T. Basiev, M.E. Doroshenko, V.V. Osiko, and A.G. Papashvili
ThD6 Optical Amplifiers and Their Applications (OAA) 1995
T. Danger, T. Sandrock, E. Heumann, and G. Huber
QWD46 European Quantum Electronics Conference (EQEC) 1994