Cuprous Ion Doped Crystals for Tunable Lasers

Abstract

Studies of copper-doped silicate and fluoride glasses demonstrated that intense fluorescence could be obtained from cuprous ions in the 350–900 nm region, and that laser gain could be achieved under certain circumstances. However, solarization of the glass hosts by the UV pump light introduced a loss at the potential laser wavelengths, preventing laser oscillation. A crystalline host having a non-inversion symmetry site for the cuprous ions would maintain the large oscillator strength while possibly avoiding this solarization loss. We determined that Cu⁺¹ doped crystals such as RbMgF₃ exhibit strong fluorescence apparently without the solarization problem.