Abstract

The effective energy transfer from the chromium ions to the rare-earth elements ions, realized in the gallium garnet crystals [1], enables to improve the effectiveness of the active materials operating according to the traditional schemes, as well as to propose a number of new schemes. In the present paper we report the obtained laser action on the erbium ions transition ⁴I_11/2→ ⁴I_13/2 with the flashlamp excitation of the chromium and erbium ions absorbtion bands in the yttrium-scandium-gallium garnet crystal. With the erbium ions concentration 4.10²¹ cm⁻³ and chromium 2.10²⁰ cm⁻³ the energy transfer efficiency Cr→ Er is close to 1. The energy transfer is the result of the static dipole-dipole interaction with its microparameter of 2.10⁻³⁹ cm⁶ sec⁻¹ The lifetime of the initial erbium laser level ⁴I_11/2 is 6,5 msec. Despite of this fact this laser transition is not self-limiting at sufficiently high pumping densities and ion concentrations.

© 1986 Optical Society of America