Abstract

The increased interest in the field of atmospheric remote sensing resulted in grown attention to mid IR lasers with oscillation wavelength within 4-5 μm region corresponding to so called “transparency window” which is characterized by low atmospheric absorption. To avoid he problem of strong nonradiative quenching of mid IR transitions, laser crystals with low maximum phonon frequencies are required. Chloride and sulfide crystals are very promising due to lower vibrational frequencies. In [1] 0.12 mJ mid IR λ=4.31 μm laser oscillations of Dy³⁺ ion in calcium thiogallate (CaGa₂S₄) were first reported. In this paper we present new results on spectroscopy and laser oscillations (0.3 mJ λ=4.33 μm) in lead thiogallate (PbGa₂S₄) doped with dysprosium which have some advantages over the calcium one.

© 2005 Optical Society of America