Low Cost and High Efficiency Ceramic Laser

New concepts in fiber optic lasers are of interest to Army to reduce the cost-per-watt and sustain longer storage life in the field. Current solid state laser materials are limited in Nd or Yb doped single crystals, both emit at near 1 mwavelength, and other material systems have not yet been fully explored. Due to the unavailability of high efficiency materials emitting at 1.5 ¿m, diode pump radiation is currently used to generate lasing near 1¿m and then converted to the 1.5¿m spectralregion through an inefficient nonlinear optical process. The overall efficiency of these lasers is on the order of 10%, which is not satisfactory for Army's applications. Boston Applied Technologies proposes to develop a novel diode pumped ceramic laserdirectly generating lasing in the1.5¿m spectral range. The major advantages of a ceramic laser are high efficiency and low cost. The rare earth doping concentration, hence the lasing efficiency, in a ceramic is much higher than that in single crystals,while the cost of a laser ceramic is only a fraction of laser crystals. This proposed approach would lead a revolutionary impact not only on military direct energy system, but also the telecommunication industry. Low cost and high performance ceramic laserhas direct application in both military and commercial applications. The applications will include LADAR, IR mapping and imaging, and telecommunication.