Solid-state laser

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

alexandrite, Er:YAG, Nd:YAG

A solid-state laser is a laser that uses a gain medium that is a solid, rather than a liquid as in dye lasers or a gas as in gas lasers.[1] Semiconductor-based lasers are also in the solid state, but are generally considered as a separate class from solid-state lasers, called laser diodes.

Solid-state media

Generally, the active medium of a solid-state laser consists of a glass or crystalline "host" material, to which is added a "dopant" such as neodymium, chromium, erbium,[2] thulium[3] or ytterbium.[4] Many of the common dopants are rare-earth elements, because the excited states of such ions are not strongly coupled with the thermal vibrations of their crystal lattices (phonons), and their operational thresholds can be reached at relatively low intensities of laser pumping.

There are many hundreds of solid-state media in which laser action has been achieved, but relatively few types are in widespread use. Of these, probably the most common is

megajoules), for multiple-beam inertial confinement fusion
.

The first material used for lasers was

cryogenic temperatures they can be made to emit a continuous train of pulses.[5]

Some solid-state lasers can also be

nanometers. Alexandrite lasers are tunable from 700 to 820 nm and yield higher-energy pulses than titanium-sapphire lasers because of the gain medium's longer energy storage time and higher damage threshold
.

Pumping

Solid state

semiconductor lasers
has decreased.

Mode locking

Mode locking of solid-state lasers and fiber lasers has wide applications, as large-energy ultra-short pulses can be obtained.[1] There are two types of saturable absorbers that are widely used as mode lockers: SESAM,[7][8][9] and SWCNT. Graphene has also been used.[10][11][12] These materials use a nonlinear optical behavior called saturable absorption to make a laser create short pulses.

Current applications and developments

Solid-state lasers are being developed as optional weapons for the

F-35 Lightning II, and are reaching near-operational status,[13][14][15] as well as the introduction of Northrop Grumman's FIRESTRIKE laser weapon system.[16][17] In April 2011 the United States Navy tested a high energy solid state laser. The exact range is classified, but they said it fired "miles not yards".[18][19]

.

The U.S. Army is preparing to test a truck-mounted laser system using a 58 kW fiber laser.[20] The scalability of the laser opens up use on everything from drones to massive ships at different levels of power. The new laser puts 40 percent of available energy into its beam, which is considered very high for solid-state lasers. Since more and more military vehicles and trucks are using advanced hybrid engine and propulsion systems that produce electricity for applications like lasers the applications are likely to proliferate in trucks, drones, ships, helicopters and planes.[20]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Heller, Jörg (1 March 2022). "A Primer on Solid-State Lasers". www.techbriefs.com. SAE Media Group. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  2. PMID 26977666
    .
  3. .
  4. ^ Z. Su, J. D. Bradley, N. Li, E. S. Magden, Purnawirman, D. Coleman, N. Fahrenkopf, C. Baiocco, T. Adam, G. Leake, D. Coolbaugh, D. Vermeulen, and M. R. Watts (2016) "Ultra-Compact CMOS-Compatible Ytterbium Microlaser", Integrated Photonics Research, Silicon and Nanophotonics 2016, IW1A.3.
  5. ^ "Continuous solid-state laser operation revealed by BTL" (PDF). Astronautics: 74. March 1962.
  6. ^ N. P. Barnes, Transition metal solid-state lasers, in Tunable Lasers Handbook, F. J. Duarte (Ed.) (Academic, New York, 1995).
  7. ^ H. Zhang et al., "Induced solitons formed by cross polarization coupling in a birefringent cavity fiber laser" Archived 7 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Opt. Lett., 33, 2317–2319.(2008).
  8. ^ D. Y. Tang et al., "Observation of high-order polarization-locked vector solitons in a fiber laser" Archived 20 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Physical Review Letters, 101, 153904 (2008).
  9. ^ L. M. Zhao et al., "Polarization rotation locking of vector solitons in a fiber ring laser" Archived 7 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Optics Express, 16,10053–10058 (2008).
  10. S2CID 207313024. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 17 July 2011.
  11. S2CID 119284608. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 17 July 2011.
  12. .
  13. ^ Fulghum, David A. "Lasers being developed for F-35 and AC-130." Aviation Week and Space Technology, (8 July 2002). Access date: 8 February 2006.
  14. ^ Morris, Jefferson. "Keeping cool a big challenge for JSF laser, Lockheed Martin says." Aerospace Daily, 26 September 2002. Access date: 3 June 2007.
  15. ^ Fulghum, David A. "Lasers, HPM weapons near operational status." Aviation Week and Space Technology, 22 July 2002. Access date: 8 February 2006.
  16. ^ "Northrop Grumman Press Release". Archived from the original on 8 December 2008. Retrieved 13 November 2008.
  17. ^ "The Register Press Release". The Register. Retrieved 14 November 2008.
  18. ^ "US Navy's laser test could put heat on pirates". Fox News. 13 April 2011.
  19. ^ Kaplan, Jeremy A. (8 April 2011). "Navy shows off powerful new laser weapon". Fox News.
  20. ^ a b Tucker, Patrick (16 March 2017). "US Army to Test Powerful New Truck-Mounted Laser 'Within Months'". Defense One. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  • Koechner, Walter (1999). Solid-State Laser Engineering (5th ed.). Springer. .