Doped Insulator Lasers | previous | next | feedback |
Definition: lasers with a solid-state gain medium containing a laser-active dopant
The term doped insulator lasers is sometimes used to more precisely address a specific class of solid-state lasers. These have a gain medium which is a transparent and electrically insulating solid material, in which the laser amplification is done by some dopant. The host medium can be a single crystal (monocrystalline medium), a glass or a ceramic. The laser-active constituents are dopant ions either in the group of trivalent rare earth ions (e.g. Nd3+, Yb3+ or Er3+) or from the transition metals (e.g. Ti3+, Cr4+, Cr3+ or Cr2+).
Not included in doped insulator lasers are lasers with other solid-state gain media such as semiconductor lasers, solid-state dye lasers or color center lasers.
See also: solid-state lasers, laser crystals, laser crystals versus glasses, rare-earth-doped gain media, transition-metal-doped gain media
