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Doped Insulator Lasers

Definition: lasers with a solid-state gain medium containing a laser-active dopant

Categories: optical materials, laser devices and laser physics

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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.

The term solid-state lasers is normally used with the same meaning as doped insulator laser, effectively excluding various types of lasers with solid gain media.

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