Diffusion Bonded Crystals with High Damage Threshold

MgF2 or Magnesium Fluoride is positive uni-axial crystal with a very high optical transmittance from the vacuum UV to IR. It is regularly used for optical elements where extreme ruggedness and durability is required. It also has a large resistance to mechanical and thermal shock, to optical radiation, and is chemically stable, making it a very useful materials for UV and IR optics.

Nd:GdVO4, is a promising material for diode pumped lasers. Similar to the more well-known Nd:YVO4 crystal, Nd:GdVO4 crystal also exhibits high gain, low threshold, and high absorption coefficients at pumping wavelengths. Nd:GdVO4 has the additional advantage over Nd:YVO4 of a much higher thermal conductivity. For CW lasing at 1.06 um and 1.34 um and intracavity doubling with KTP and LBO, the gadolinium vanadate have produced a higher slope efficiency or optical conversion than Nd:YVO4.

The Anamorphic prisms are used in pairs to magnify input beam size along one axis while leaving the other axis unchanged. The elliptical laser diode beams can be transferred into nearly circular.

Silicon is used as an optical window primarily in the 3 to 5 micron band and as a subsrate for production of optical filters and windows. Silicon (Si) is grown by Czochralski pulling techniques (CZ) and contains some oxygen that causes an absorption band at 9 microns. To avoid this, material can be prepared by a Float-Zone (FZ) process. Optical silicon is generally lightly doped (5 to 40 ohm cm) for best transmission above 10 microns, and doping is usually boron (P-type) and phosphorus (N-type). After doping silicon has a further pass band: 30 to 100 microns which is effective only in very high resistivity uncompensated material.

Co2+:MgAl2O4 Cospinel is a relatively new material for passive Q-switching in lasers emitting from 1.2 to 1.6 μm, in particular, for eye-safe 1.54 μm Er:glass laser, but also works at 1.44 μm and 1.34 μm wavelengths. Spinel is a hard, stable crystal that polishes well. Cobalt substitutes readily for magnesium in the Spinel host without the need for additional charge compensation ions. High absorption cross section (3.5×10-19 cm2) permits Q-switching of Er:glass laser without intracavity focusing both with flash-lamp and diode-laser pumping. Negligible excited-state absorption results in high contrast of Q-switch, i.e. the ratio of initial (small signal) to saturated absorption is higher than 10.

HGO grows Nd:YLF laser crystals using Czochralski technology. Nd3+:YLF crystal is characterized by its long lifetime of 4F3/2 neodymium energy level. Compared to Nd:YAG, the lower thermal conductivity and a weak negative dn/dT lead to lower thermal distortions and allow to achieve a better output beam quality. Another distinctive feature is the high UV transparency, which is favorable for pumping with xenon flash lamps.

Germanium (Ge) is the preferred lens and window material for high performance infrared imaging systems in the 8–12 um wavelength band.

Prisms are transparent optical devices which refract or reflect light. They have manifold applications in laser technology.