Saturable absorbers for Q-switching of middle infrared laser cavaties

摘要

This disclosure demonstrates successfully using single, polycrystalline, hot pressed ceramic, and thin film Fe doped binary chalcogenides (such as ZnSe and ZnS) as saturable absorbing passive Q-switches. The method of producing polycrystalline ZnSe(S) yields fairly uniform distribution of dopant, large coefficients of absorption (5-50 cm−1) and low passive losses while being highly cost effective and easy to reproduce. Using these Fe2+:ZnSe crystals, stable Q-switched output was achieved with a low threshold and the best cavity configuration yielded 13 mJ/pulse single mode Q-switched output and 85 mJ in a multipulse regime.

主权项

1. A 3 μm Erbium laser comprising:
a Q-switch comprising a passive solid state saturable absorber selected from the group consisting of single crystalline and polycrystalline Fe2+:ZnSe and Fe2+:ZnS to effectuate passive Q-switching in the 3 μm Erbium laser.