Fe:ZnSe laser pumped by a 2.93- Cr, Er:YAG laser**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61405047).

Abstract

We demonstrated an Fe:ZnSe laser pumped by a 2.93- Cr, Er:YAG laser at liquid nitrogen and room temperature in single-shot free-running operation for the first time. The xenon flash lamp pumped Cr, Er:YAG laser had a maximum single pulse energy of 1.414 J, and the threshold and slope efficiency were 141.70 J and 0.70% which were respectively reduced by 29.3% and increased by 52.2% compared with the Er:YAG laser. At liquid nitrogen temperature of 77 K, the maximum single pulse energy of the Fe:ZnSe laser was 197.6 mJ, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 13.4%. The central wavelength and full width at half maximum (FWHM) linewidth were 4037.4 nm and 122.0 nm, respectively. At room temperature, the laser generated a maximum single pulse energy of 3.5 mJ at the central wavelength of 4509.6 nm with an FWHM linewidth of 171.5 nm.