Laser with the slurry active medium

Abstract

Active media composed of the particles of solid-state laser materials are the subject of a significant number of studies since this approach can provide new solutions to the problem of heat removal from the laser medium. Powder from LiF crystal particles with F2 color centers (sized up to 1000 µm) immersed in a mixture of heptane and vaseline oil (forming an index-matched slurry) was examined as an active medium in a test experiment under Coumarin 120 dye laser pumping. The pulses of collimated radiation (beam divergence 2–5 × 10−3 rad) in the spectral region near 0.68 µm with duration about 10 ns and energy near 0.1 mJ were obtained at the output of the resonator containing a glass cuvette with the LiF:F2 slurry. Laser action of the active medium in the form of a slurry is reported for the first time to our knowledge. Further research of the slurry laser on crystal or glass particles is discussed.