Abstract
In the past few decades, the multifunctional optical crystals for all-solid-state Raman lasers have been widely studied by many scholars due to their compactness, convenience and excellent performance. In this review, we briefly show two kinds of multifunctional Raman crystals: self-Raman (laser and Raman effects) crystals and self-frequency-doubled Raman (frequency-doubling and Raman effects) crystals. We firstly introduce the properties of the self-Raman laser crystals, including vanadate, tungstate, molybdate and silicate doped with rare earth ions, as well as self-frequency-doubled Raman crystals, including KTiOAsO4 (KTA) and BaTeMo2O9 (BTM). Additionally, the domestic and international progress in research on multifunctional Raman crystals is summarized in the continuous wave, passively Q-switched, actively Q-switched and mode-locked regimes. Finally, we present the bottleneck in multifunctional Raman crystals and the outlook for future development. Through this review, we contribute to a general understanding of multifunctional Raman crystals.
Highlights
Multifunctional Optical Crystals for Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) is a simple and efficient method to extend the spectral range from ultraviolet to mid-infrared
The first actively Q-switched (AQS) Nd:KGd (WO4 )2 (Nd):GdVO4 self-Raman laser operating at 1521 nm was delivered by Chen [18] as exhibited in Figure 2, and maximum output power of 1.18 W was achieved with an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 8.7%
Nd:KLuW self-Raman laser at 1185 nm was produced by Cong et al [102], as shown in Figure 6, and the maximum output power of 1.5 W was attained with conversion efficiency of 9.8%
Summary
Multifunctional Optical Crystals for Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) is a simple and efficient method to extend the spectral range from ultraviolet to mid-infrared. The first actively Q-switched (AQS) self-Raman laser was realized by Findeisen et al [12] with the anisotropic Nd:KGW crystal. Self-Raman laser with Yb:KYW crystal, and the corresponding optical power conversion efficiency was 10%. The vanadate YVO4 and GdVO4 were later predicted to be excellent materials for SRS [14], and many vanadate self-Raman lasers have been gradually reported with high average powers (>5 W) and high conversion efficiencies (>20%) [15,16,17,18,19,20]. In 2009, Liu et al [5] used a single KTA crystal to perform self-frequency-doubled Raman conversion from the 1064 nm fundamental beam to the 573 nm yellow beam. The article concludes with a summary of multifunctional Raman crystals, and a discussion of opportunities for future development and applications
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