Transition-metal-doped Gain Media | <<< | >>> | Feedback |
Definition: lasers based on gain media which are doped with transition metal ions
A number of solid-state laser gain media are doped with transition metal ions, having optical transitions involving the electrons of the 3d shell. Table 1 gives an overview of the most common transition metal ions and their host media.
Table 1: Common transition metal ions and host media.
| Ion | Common host media | Typical emission wavelengths |
|---|---|---|
| titanium (Ti3+) | sapphire | 0.65–1.1 μm |
| divalent chromium (Cr2+) | zinc chalcogenides such as ZnS, ZnSe, and ZnSxSe1−x | 1.9–3.4 μm |
| trivalent chromium (Cr3+) | ruby (Al2O3), alexandrite (BeAl2O4); LiSAF, LiCAF, LiSAF, and similar fluorides | 0.7–0.9 μm |
| tetravalent chromium (Cr4+) | YAG, MgSiO4 (forsterite) and other silicates | 1.1–1.65 μm |
More exotic ions for lasers are cobalt (Co2+), nickel (Ni2+), and iron (Fe2+).
A common property of transition metal ions is that the corresponding absorption and laser transitions have a very broad bandwidth, leading in particular to a very large gain bandwidth. This results from the strong interaction of the electronic transitions with phonons (→ vibronic lasers), which is a kind of homogeneous broadening. Laser-active transition metal ions are basically always used in crystals rather than glasses as host media, since crystals offer a higher thermal conductivity and the additional inhomogeneous broadening from glasses would hardly be useful.
The most important lasers based on transition-metal-doped gain media are titanium–sapphire lasers and various lasers based on chromium-doped gain media such as Cr4+:YAG or Cr3+:LiSAF. Less common are lasers based on media such as Co2+:MgF2, Co2+:ZnF2 and Ni2+:MgF2.
Bibliography
| [1] | R. Scheps, “Cr-doped solid-state lasers pumped by visible laser diodes”, Opt. Mater. 1, 1 (1992) |
| [2] | E. Sorokin et al., “Ultrabroadband infrared solid-state lasers”, IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 11 (3), 690 (2005) (a review mainly concerning Cr2+ and Cr4+ lasers) |
| [3] | S. B. Mirov et al., “Recent progress in transition-metal-doped II–VI mid-IR lasers”, IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 13 (3), 810 (2007) |
| [4] | V. V. Fedorov et al., “3.77–5.05-μm tunable solid-state lasers based on Fe2+-doped ZnSe crystals operating at low and room temperatures”, IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 42 (9), 907 (2006) |
See also: titanium–sapphire lasers, chromium-doped gain media, rare-earth-doped gain media, vibronic lasers
