Abstract

Cr⁴⁺:YAG has attracted considerable interest in the past years since it has an effective gain cross section of 3×10⁻¹⁹ cm² and an excited-state lifetime of 4 µs, which are comparable to those of Ti:sapphire. Consequently, similar laser performance should be expected from this relatively efficient material,^1-3 which at room temperature can be tuned over the spectral region 1.34 µm to 1.58 µm. To date the majority of reported laser systems have been pumped by either pulsed or cw Nd:YAG lasers. Here we report investigations on the pump-wavelength dependence of a simple Cr⁴⁺:YAG laser system. These investigations are part of our program to construct a compact, all-solid-state tunable laser for either cw or self-mode locked operation.^4,5 This could find applications in optical-telecommunications testing and eyesafe ranging around 1.54 µm.

© 1995 Optical Society of America