The principal ideas of the thin-disk laser design will be illustrated and the advantages for operating different laser materials will be explained. The results for continuous-wave (CW) and Q-switched operation as well as for amplification of short (nanosecond) and ultrashort (picosecond, femtosecond) pulses demonstrate the potential of the thin-disk laser design. The scaling laws for this laser design show that the power limit for CW operation is far beyond 40 kW for one single disk and the energy limit is higher than 3 J from one disk in pulsed operation. Also, the applicability of the thin-disk laser concept to optically pumped semiconductor structures will be discussed. When pumping directly into the quantum wells, the energy defect between the pump photon and the laser photon can be smaller than 5%, thus reducing the waste heat generated inside the semiconductor structure. First results demonstrate the potential of this new concept. Finally, a short overview of the industrial realization of the thin-disk laser technology will be given.

Fifteen Years of Work on Thin-Disk Lasers: Results and Scaling Laws

Transparent ceramics: Processing, materials and applications

After a brief examination of known insulating laser crystals and the stimulated emission channels of their generating activator ions, this article reviews recent advances in the development of novel lasing crystals and ceramics, as well as inorganic and organic nonlinear-laser crystals for χ(3) and cascaded χ(3) ↔ χ(2) frequency converters Several new modern attractive technologies in the physics and techniques of crystalline lasers are also discussed

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/lpor.200710008

Laser crystals and ceramics: recent advances

Infrared (2–12 μm) solid-state laser sources: a review

Charge transfer luminescence of Yb3

Rare earth doped scandia and yttria have been grown from rhenium crucibles by the Czochralski technique - to our knowledge for the first time. Spectroscopic data of Yb:Sc 2 O 3 are presented in detail and first laser experiments are reported. Despite the rather high crystal losses of about 2 % a slope efficiency of 37 % was obtained under diode pumping.

New Oxide Crystals for Solid State Lasers

Rare-earth-doped sesquioxides

High melting sesquioxides: crystal growth, spectroscopy, and laser experiments

Czochralski growth and laser parameters of RE3 +-doped Y2O3 and Sc2O3

ion in the crystals YVO4, GdVO4, and Sr5(PO4)3F. The measurements were performed in the spectral region of the main laser transitions 4F3/2→4I9/2, 4F3/2→4I11/2, and 4F3/2→4I13/2by a continuous wave pump and probe technique. The calibrated gain and ESA spectra are presented and possible implications of ESA on the laser performance are estimated. It is shown that ESA can be a small loss factor to the laser emission near 1060 nm but does considerably diminish the effective emission cross sections near 1340 nm especially in Nd:YVO4 and Nd:GdVO4.

L. Fornasiero

Papers

New Oxide Crystals for Solid State Lasers

Rare-earth-doped sesquioxides

High melting sesquioxides: crystal growth, spectroscopy, and laser experiments

Czochralski growth and laser parameters of RE3 +-doped Y2O3 and Sc2O3

Excited state absorption and stimulated emission of Nd 3+ in crystals. Part 2: YVO 4 , GdVO 4 , and Sr 5 (PO 4 ) 3 F