Crystal Growth and Characterization of High-Quality Erbium-Doped KPb2Cl5:A Novel Mid-Infrared Laser Material

"This Phase 1 project will investigate the crystal growth aspects and optoelectronic characterization of a new ternary alkali lead chloride material, Er-doped KPb2Cl5, which recently showed high promise in mid-infrared (3-4.5 um) laser applications. Inparticular, it has an excellent potential as a mid-infrared laser because of two factors: 1) the high concentration of erbium ions (2 x 10^20 ions/cm^3) with its large cross section provides excellent energy storage lifetimes (~ms), and 2) the crystals arehard and very stable at or above room temperature, enabling practical large scale laser sources. The goals of the Phase I project are to identify and select optimum growth conditions for ultrapure high quality erbium (Er)-doped KPb2Cl5 large singlecrystals in a cost-effective way, to develop new post-growth treatments to improve the quality of the grown crystals, and to characterize various optoelectronic properties in order to demonstrate the feasibility of fabricating mid-infrared lasers fromthese crystals. The proposed material would be used to fabricate compact, highly efficient mid-infrared (IR) laser, which would find application in remote sensing instrumentation, IR countermeasures, molecular spectroscopic studies, and in environmental monitoring."